Separate Roads
by black angel 2011
Summary: Ash is an experienced trainer starting his next journey this time in the Kalos region, when he arrives he meets young woman who knows him from his past, they soon become friends and quickly become rivals, collect the badges and competing in the Kalos league. As the two continue their journey they are drawn closer to one another every time they meet, AshXSerena, please enjoy.
1. The Start of Something New

**Separate roads**

**Chapter 1: the start of something new.**

**_Age of the main characters:_**

_Ash: 19_

_Serena: 18_

_**Disclaimer: **__Pokemon doesn't belong to me, the characters also belong to Nintendo: thank you._

_This story will start in Lumiose City, please enjoy, this one we will need to wait another month or so for the release of the games, but that shouldn't be too much of an issue. This chapter will be played in two parts one for Ash and the other for Serena._

* * *

Ash had entered the large city with hopes of winning the Kalos league, he walked off the plane seeing the massive skyscrapers and the large tower in the middle of the city, his wonderment at the wonderful city could barely be contained, on his left shoulder was his long-time partner pokemon Pikachu, he walked around the streets which seemed to have circled around the tower, seeing the many sites that the city had to offer, talking to strange people who seemed very friendly and the strange new pokemon that seemed to be everywhere he could view, "wow Pikachu, have a look at those strange pokemon," Ash pointed over to the goat like pokemon, he noticed a person riding on the back of the pokemon and stared in shock, "and they are being ridden," Ash stated in awe, he turned around to see a few more people riding on the back of the strange new pokemon, he pulled out his old pokedex and scanned the new pokemon, "oh forgot that this pokedex doesn't know anything about these new pokemon," Ash commented with a chuckle.

After visiting the tourist sites Ash tried to find his way around the mammoth city, trying to look for the Pokemon Center, he was getting lost, unable to find the place he was looking for, "how big is this city?" Ash complained with a frown while looking around his right shoulder only to see a coffee shop and a bar, he dropped slightly from exhaustion until another person riding on the back of the strange new pokemon arrived, "excuse me, do you know where the Pokemon Center is by any chance?" Ash asked the person with a tired smile.

The young male teen who was wearing a green shirt, blue shorts and black shoes stopped next to the trainer and smiled at him, "yeah of course I do, I am heading there now," the male trainer stated with a grin, he pulled out his pokeball and called out another of the strange pokemon, "Gogoat, let's go," the trainer said with a proud grin.

"Gogoat?" Ash wondered out loud while looking at the mostly brown pokemon, he placed his right hand on the new pokemon and started to climb on hesitantly.

"Oh come on surely you have seen a Gogoat before," the teen chided the older trainer, "these guys are really friendly, they are cheaper than any car you see around you," he stated with a proud grin.

Ash got onto the back of the riding pokemon and the two started to ride towards their respective destination, "I admit this is my first time here, so I have never seen these pokemon before," Ash professed with a nervous smile.

"So where are you from?" the teen asked the young man.

"I am from Kanto," Ash replied while holding onto the horns of the Gogoat, "my name is Ash Ketchum," Ash introduced himself while nervously riding the powerful pokemon.

"My name is Trent, I am from Vaniville Town, where I started my journey." The teen known as Trent introduced himself happily, "you know it is easy to get lost in this city, but luckily the people are friendly enough to point you in the right direction," Trent explained with great pride, as he looked around to see a large building with a red roof, "ah there it is," the teen pointed out with joy.

"So this city if is so large, how big is the region?" Ash asked with a nervous look.

"Well this region is so big it takes three maps to cover it," the younger trainer retorted with a smile, "this city branches out towards other towns and cities all over the region," the boy explained while getting ready to jump off his pokemon, "north of this city is Vaniville Town, and that is about two days walk from here," Trent told Ash with a smile.

"So the local professor would have a new pokedex for me there?" Ash asked with a knowing smile.

The younger trainer nodded in reply, Ash leapt off the riding pokemon with Pikachu on his left shoulder, "that's right, but I have to suggest that you get some rest, I will lead you to the exit of the city that leads to Vaniville Town," the young trainer suggested while showing the trainer around the large medical facility.

Ash looked around to see the many different pokemon he had never seen in his life, but some familiar ones within the arms of trainers, "amazing, there is a vast quantity of pokemon so far," Ash whispered to his pokemon while looking at his only pokemon. Ash turned to the younger trainer and smiled at him, "thanks for the help Trent," Ash thankfully told the trainer while walking up to the front counter.

Ash looked around to see three people walking into the pokemon Center wearing mostly red with red sunglasses, "oh no not Team Flare," Trent said with a frown while.

"Team Flare? Who are they?" Ash asked the younger trainer with great curiosity.

"They are a mystery, they only seek money, even the regions professor doesn't know much about them," Trent replied to Ash's curiosity, "from what I have heard, they capture rare pokemon and sell them on the black market for outrageous prices," Trent explained while watching the three members of Team Flare walking out of the medical facility with the people watching them leave silently.

"So these guys are trouble?" Ash questioned with uncertainty, Trent nodded cautiously and sat down to eat his meal. Ash walked to his room and thought about the three people he saw, they said hardly anything bust handed another mysterious person a pokeball, "maybe they were selling a rare pokemon," Ash thought out loud before laying down on his pillow, he moved his hands to the back of his head and stared at the ceiling, "it just seems like each region can't go through a moment of peace," Ash reminded himself while thinking about the troubles he had with Team Rocket, especially Jessie, James and Meowth, Team Aqua and Team Magma, then there was Team Galactic and finally his thoughts trailed off to Team Plasma, "they do make the journey interesting," Ash stated while closing his eyes while chuckling at the difficult times he had at the hands of the opposing teams he had faced.

Ash started to fall asleep while muttering to himself about his journey so far, "I….will become a pokemon…." He started as he fell asleep with his old pokedex in hand.

Meanwhile outside the Pokemon Center a man wearing a lab coat ran across town with his brief case in one hand and a panicked expression on his face, "oh this is just great, I am so disorganised, my old friend Professor Oak will be really upset if he finds out that I am late for giving out a pokemon to the new trainers," he reminded himself before being stopped by four men wearing mostly red, "Team Flare, what is you want?" the professor asked with a displeased expression on his face.

"You know better than anyone, we want the three starters in your briefcase," the man in the middle replied.

"No, these pokemon belong to a starting trainer," the black haired professor replied while the four men approached him, the professor pulled out one of his pokeballs ready to battle the flare grunts.

"Oh come on Professor Sycamore, you know pokemon is money, we will sell them to the new trainer, but for a black market price," the Flare grunt on the far right pointed out with a calm disposition.

The professor pulled the brief case behind him and tried to guard it while the Flare grunts started to surround him, "not good, they outnumber me," the professor reminded himself while trying to figure out what to do next, 'if they grab these pokeballs how will I tell Serena and her friends that Team Flare took their pokemon for profit?' the professor questioned himself while taking one of his pokeballs ready to face the Flare grunts in battle.

"Well, if she wants a pokemon so badly then she can buy it off of us," the Flare grunt stated with a smirk. The members of Team Flare approached the professor quietly before a powerful blast of electricity crashed down in front of the mysterious organisation, "who goes there? Who dares stop us from making a business proposition?" the Flare grunts asked with disdain.

"Business? What I saw was you lot trying to take this professor's pokemon for your own greed," Ash replied with anger while his pikechu glared at them with sparks of lightning flying from his cheeks.

The members of Team Flare turned their attention to one another while Ash walked up to the professor, "who are you young man?" the professor asked with a worried expression, "my name is Professor Sycamore," the professor introduced himself while looking over to the flare grunt.

"My name is Ash Ketchum from the Kanto Region, and this is my starter pokemon and best friend Pikachu," Ash introduced himself and the small yellow electric mouse.

"We retreat for now, but when the time comes our leader will make his intentions clear," the members of Team Flare stated before throwing a smoke bomb onto the ground

After the smoke cleared Ash stared at the area where his foes were standing, "just who were those guys?" Ash asked before looking over towards the professor as he stood up holding onto his brief case.

"Those guys are from Team Flare, not much is known about them, but I now know what their intentions are," Professor Sycamore explained while dusting off the briefcase, "thank you Ash, as a reward, I will let you have one of the three pokemon I have as thanks," the professor told Ash with a smile.

"No thanks, those pokemon belong to the new trainers," Ash retorted with a grin while looking over to his partner pokemon, "plus I can catch my own pokemon," the raven haired trainer, he looked around to make sure none of the members of Team Flare were still around, "I have been thinking Professor Scyamore, what kind of gym leaders does this region have?" Ash asked the professor with a smirk.

"Really tough ones, plus I am certain you would need a new pokedex as well," the regional professor replied calmly.

Ash nodded and started to follow the professor to his lab, Ash looked around and began to think about the new challenges that the new region would present to him. Watching the cars go by and Gogoats moving across the major city with trainers on their back, "this region is really interesting," Ash whispered to his pokemon, following the professor wondering what the Gym Leaders had to offer in terms of a challenge.

"Yeah, that's right young man, this region has many different challenges, even pokemon that mega-evolve," the blue haired professor explained with a proud smile.

"Mega-evolve? What the heck is that?" Ash asked in a puzzled manner.

"You heard correctly pokemon that mega-evolve get stronger but only during battle," Professor Sycamore replied with a confident grin, "there is a girl who knows a lot about mega-evolution, why not go and meet with her? She resides in Shalour City," the professor enquired before walking into a large building, "well thanks for escorting me to my lab, maybe I will see you again, but now I have to give this young woman a pokemon," the professor decreed while the woman with long blonde hair wearing a red dress, black sleeveless blouse and knee length stockings turned around to show her confident gray eyes and smiled at the trainer, "oh so Ash her name is Serena, she is a trainer much like yourself, or to put it correctly, she is a beginning trainer," Professor Sycamore remarked as he corrected himself, but was ignored by the two trainers.

Serena stared for a moment, unable to say a word, she tilted her head and smiled again, "my name is Serena, who might you be?" she asked curiously.

"My name is Ash Ketchum," Ash replied, he extended his hand out to shake the young woman's, she extended her hand out to shake Ash's hand, "you have a strong handshake," Ash complimented quietly.

"Ash Ketchum? The same Ash from ten years ago? You might not remember too much, but I certainly remember you," Serena complied with a smile, she turned around with her hair whipping up in the wind.

After watching the young woman walking into the lab, "you know buddy, she is pretty cute and she knows who I am, must have forgotten some stuff from a while ago," Ash told his partner pokemon who hit the ground in shock. Ash turned around to walk to search for his new friend, "well we better find Trent, we need to start our journey," Ash said with a smile.

After walking back to the medical facility Ash looked around for the teen, "oh come on, he left before showing me to one of the exits of this city," Ash complained while walking over to the main desk, "excuse me Nurse Joy, do you by any chance have a map for this region and city?" Ash asked a pink haired nurse who was dressed mostly in white.

"Here is a spare map," the nurse replied with a warm smile.

"Thank you Nurse Joy," Ash thankfully replied to the nurse, he picked the map off the main counter and walked towards the exit of the Pokemon Center, Ash unfurled the map and started to scan it for a moment, "alright I guess, if we head south from here we will be heading towards a castle, but if we head to the west, we will be seeing a lot of roads and rural areas, but the icy area seems very interesting," Ash thought out loud, he tried to figure out the layout of the city, walking on his own before bumping into a person without watching where he was going, he folded the map and looked down to see Serena on the ground.

Serena cleaned up her dress, "you idiot watch where you're…" she started before looking up to see Ash standing in front of her, "oh Ash, sorry for running into you," Serena apologized.

"But you called me an idiot," Ash complained while Pikachu started laughing at him.

"Sorry about that, I wasn't watching where I was going," Serena professed with embarrassment.

Ash chuckled knowing the feeling, "well I was too busy looking at this map."

Ash showed the map to the young woman causing her to smile sweetly, "so you will be challenging the Kalos League, I guess that makes us rivals," the blonde said as she got to her feet and looked at the map with the trainer, "you know this city has so many different roads leading to different cities," she told Ash while pointing to each exit on the cities map, "I plan on taking the eastern roads," Serena stated with confidence.

"I was thinking of taking the western roads," Ash told the younger girl calmly.

"I have an idea, since we are now rivals, how about we come back to this point and compare our achievements," Serena suggested with a wink.

"Comparing achievements? Never really done that before," Ash replied as he looked at the map again, he started to think about the prospect of competing with the young woman, "alright you're on," Ash replied while extending his hand out to the starting trainer.

"Sweet, so not only are we rivals we're also friends, may the best trainer win," Serena decreed while meeting the experienced trainer's hand, they shook hands while Ash's Pikachu watched them becoming friends, "come on out Fennekin," Serena called for a small yellow and orange fox like pokemon.

"Wow, so this is one of the starters of this region," Ash commented while looking at the small pokemon.

"Also Professor Sycamore wanted me to give you this, he forgot to give you this pokedex," Serena stated while handing over the item and five pokeballs to Ash.

Ash looked at the item for a moment and pressed a button, the top part of the device lifted up revealing a screen, "wow, so this is the new pokedex," Ash questioned with awe, he pressed the button again to retract the device, he turned to the western side of the city and started to walk towards one of the exits, "well Serena, I will see what you achieved later on," Ash said while waving at the girl, his Pikachu following him, he looked back to see Serena taking the opposite road towards her goals, 'this will be an interesting adventure,' Ash stated with a smile. He recommenced his walk to one of the exits of the city.

_(Flashback)_

"My name is Serena, I am starting my adventures in the Kalos region, I plan to start with Fennekin and to compete in the Kalos League," Serena started writing in a book, she looked up to the forest canopy and placed the pen towards her lips, thinking about what to write next, "I think I will save the next part after I get my pokemon," Serena told herself with a confident smile, she continued to walk through the forest on her own, placing the book into her backpack.

Serena quickly passed through the forest to see a major city on the horizon, she gasped at the sight of the largest city in the region, "it has been years since I have seen Lumiose City, it has gotten much bigger," Serena claimed with great surprise.

A few hours later, after walking around the city to get a cup of coffee, she walked towards the lab waiting for the Professor to arrive to allow her to select the pokemon she wanted, after meeting with Ash she looked back to see him walking off, 'wow, I think I have found an interesting person,' she thought to herself while smiling at him, she noticed that his Pikachu fell off his shoulder after a comment he had made.

"Well Serena, time to choose your first pokemon, we have Chespin, Froakie and Fennekin," the professor showed off the three pokemon to the teenager, the brown pokemon with a green hood looked at the girl trying to look really cute while a blue frog like pokemon with bubble formation around his neck just stood on the spot not caring, but the small fox like pokemon looked around naturally cute.

Serena walked pass the three pokemon at least four times before stopping in front of the small fire fox pokemon, "I will choose Fennekin," Serena declared the pokemon she wanted to start off with, she was given a pokeball and a pokedex to start her journey, she recalled the small yellow and orange pokemon and started to walk towards the exit.

"Oh Serena before you go here take these ten pokeballs and this spare pokedex, can you deliver five of those pokeballs and that pokedex to Ash Ketchum please?" Sycamore requested with a confident smile.

"Okay Professor, I will go to the Pokemon Center, I need to register for the Kalos League," Serena retorted with a bright smile.

_(Return from flashback)_

"So this is day one of my journey and I have already met a really cool trainer, his name is Ash Ketchum a trainer I knew him from the Kanto region, in fact I know him from many years ago, he has really grown up since our childhood, but until then I will compete against him and maybe one day, nah never mind," Serena wrote down her thoughts in the book while sitting on the bench nearest to the exit of the city, she looked up to see the exit and gulped for a moment, "I am so nervous the I cannot write neatly," she told herself before placing the pen and book in the backpack, she walked towards the exit of the city nervously, "time to make my family proud," she confidently remarked as she walked slowly towards the city exit.

Serena looked back to the distance wondering how Ash was going to begin his travels, she walked out of the city and into a green pasture, she looked around to see pokemon walking through the grass and over the road, she looked over to see a small brown pokemon with green shrubbery, "oh wow a Skiddo," Serena said with a smile a she pulled out her pokeball to call out her pokemon for battle, 'now if I remember correctly my dad always told me to weaken a wild pokemon before capturing it, so that means,' Serena thought about her father's advice before she started to journey, "Fennekin, let's get the battle started," Serena called out her starter fire type pokemon.

The fire type pokemon appeared from the pokeball ready to face the wild pokemon, 'let's see, so Fennekin is a fire type, so that could mean moves like Ember might be a good choice,' Serena thought while the grass type walked across the road, "Fennekin, attack with Ember," Serena explained her attack to her starter pokemon.

The small fire type sent a weak burst of flames towards the grass type pokemon, the attack hit the Skiddo dealing significant damage to the pokemon, Serena grew excited until a herd of Gogoats appeared angered by the attack on the baby of the litter, "I think I made them mad," She told herself she quickly recalled her starter pokemon, "help!" Serena cried out while being chased by the herd of Gogoat, she ran as fast as she could possibly muster, she ran to the entrance of the city hoping that the herd of Gogoat wouldn't harm her, "all I wanted to do was capture a Skiddo," Serena complained while looking up through the glass waiting for the Gogoat and Skiddo to leave the area.

Serena waited wondering what to do next, she grabbed her pen and book to write her thoughts down, "okay my journey didn't start as well as I would have hoped, I hope Ash is doing better than me," Serena said to herself while writing down her thoughts.

Meanwhile at the other side of the City Ash was battling against a black and white bear like pokemon with a leaf sticking out of its mouth, "alright Pikachu attack with Thunderbolt," Ash instructed his partner pokemon.

The fighting pokemon was slammed with a mighty blast of electricity knocking it out with one hit, Ash threw his pokeball at the wild pokemon, the ball hit the bear like pokemon trapping it inside the pokeball, the ball wobbled from side to side, Ash waited for the pokeball to confirm the capture, "come on, stay inside," Ash requested with a smile, he waited for what seemed like forever until the ball signified the capture of the new pokemon, Ash ran up to the pokeball and picked it up, Ash celebrated the first capture of the new region by jumping up and down, "yes I captured Pancham!" Ash celebrated while his partner pokemon followed in the celebration.

After celebrating Ash looked towards the distance to find the city which seems to have gotten smaller, "I hope Serena is doing alright," Ash thought out loud while thinking about the fact that she was a new trainer, 'maybe I should have helped her a little bit,' Ash thought while feeling guilty about not traveling with Serena for just a little while.

Meanwhile Serena started to celebrate after the capture of a Skiddo, "yes I did," Serena celebrated, she jumped around for joy while her fire type pokemon started to celebrate after finally capturing the grass type pokemon, "we did it Fennekin," Serena happily picked up her pokemon and danced around happily while her fire type pokemon happily celebrated by blowing out a burst of flames. "Come on Fennekin, there are more pokemon to capture and we need to beat Ash," Serena stated with grown confidence.

The young woman started running towards the next challenge after the situation with the Gogoat, but now she knew that pokemon don't appreciate being attacked, one lesson learned for her, but she was happy to have met Ash who she knew was going to be just fine, 'he will be fine, I can tell he is an experienced trainer,' she thought not realising the trouble Ash had gotten himself into.

"Quick Pikachu run, those pokemon are really angry!" Ash yelled out while running away from much larger black and white pokemon who were chasing him, "they must be angry because I caught one of their cubs," Ash complained while running with his partner pokemon on his shoulder. Ash looked back to see the angry pokemon continuing to chase after him after capturing one of their pokemon, "so this journey is going to be an interesting one," Ash reminded himself, running away not wanting to find out what would happen if he was caught but the powerful bear like pokemon, who were roaring at him.

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**The start of a new paring, this chapter was written at the end of August but held off because I didn't know enough of the new games (much like everyone else) but still I hope you enjoyed the start of this story.**

**As you can all tell, this is a romance story but Ash and Serena will be taking different paths, they will meet in Lumiose City and maybe test one another as well.**

**Next time chapter 2: respective gym leaders.**

_With less than a week until the games I will do what I can for the sake of this story, since almost Easy is around 10 chapters from completion I think I can start this story and focus on Falling Leaf in the Wind, as well as Trainer and the Princess._


	2. Respective Gym Leaders

**Chapter 2: Respective Gym Leaders.**

_Wow what a start, I guess people like this story, well I will do my best for all the readers. Okay there were some stuff I got wrong, but that is the problem with assumption I guess, there is a saying never assume, you will only make an Ass out of U and Me, but as they also say the show must go on._

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Ash looked back on the road breathing a sigh of relief after being chased by a group of large bear like pokemon, his partner pokemon looked back to make sure that everything was alright, he looked around to see the scenery that had dominated the area, his breath taken by the beauty that was before him, large trees lining the roads and the many different pokemon walking around in the fields and near the tree line, "wow buddy this place is amazing," Ash mentioned with a smile while walking slowly through the route.

Ash pulled out his pokeball seeing the new addition in his team, "Pancham ha? Well I guess we have a new road to forge," Ash told himself proudly

Ash walked through the small town, with a large castle in the background, "interesting, this place seems to have a lot of history," Ash commented before being approached by a guard, "seems like there is something wrong," Ash stated while looking up to the guard.

"There is, we cannot let anyone through, there is a Snorlax in the way and the Parfum Palace is closed to the public, so the Pokeflute is out of our reach at the moment," the guard stated with a frown, Ash looked at the ground with great shame, wondering what to next, the experienced trainer looked to the major road that was being blocked by the Snorlax, he turned around and started walking back to the major city, "don't worry sir Parfum Palace should be open in the next few days," the guard called over to Ash with a smile.

Ash kicked the dirt and started to leave the small town, "great, now I am going to fall behind, Serena is going to have her first badge before me," Ash complained while taking the long walk back to the big city, "well if the gyms are three on three, then I better get one of my old pokemon, might go with Gible, I haven't trained him in a while," Ash thought while walking back to the city.

Ash continued on the road to the major city with the hopes that there was going to be a gym leader there, thinking about what his next cause of action was. The trainer approached the outskirts of the major city and looked at the map, "okay so the centrepiece of the city is the gym, the Prism Tower," Ash pointed out on the map, he looked at the roads and started to sigh, knowing that the day was going to be extremely long, "I took that long to get to Camphrier Town and I get turned back, what a pain," the raven haired trainer complained.

Ash walked back in the city tired from all the walking, he looked around to find a the Pokemon Center, to rest for the day, he trudged through the busy streets feeling dejected that he couldn't rush through to the next city, he eventually made it to the medical facility and placed his order in for a room, "I hope you enjoy your stay tonight," Nurse Joy chimed.

Ash slowly walked over to the phone and called his mother to see how she was going, it was just unfortunate that the medical facility was really busy, the people talking was loud enough to prevent him from hearing his mother talking, "hello Ash, how is your journey going?" a woman with brown hair asked her son.

"Remember what I said on the first day of being a pokemon trainer?" Ash asked with a cheek smile.

"Now Ash, putting yourself down like that, you aren't a fallen Pidgy," Delia complimented while Ash started to chuckle.

"You still remember that?" Ash enquired with a shocked expression.

"So Ash, what is the Kalos Region like?" Delia asked with pride.

Ash turned his attention to the window of the medical facility and started to exhale, "from what I have seen so far the Kalos region is amazing, but I have only seen Lumiose City and Camphrier Town," Ash replied while thinking about the moment he met with another person, "I also made a friend and a rival at the same time," Ash explained happily.

"So Ash who is he? I know most of your rivals are boys your age," Delia jumped the gun.

"No mom, it's a girl this time, her name is Serena," Ash replied much to the surprise of his mother, "apparently she knows me," Ash pointed out tiredly.

Delia smiled at her son and turned her back to pick up a picture from the cupboard, "well she is your childhood friend, but she left two years before you started your journey," Delia told her son with, she pulled out the album and showed him a picture of Ash and Serena from their childhood, "Serena is such a sweet girl, it was too bad she moved away with her family," Ash's mother stated with a frown.

"Really mom? I am a little upset that I will be falling behind, not that it bothers me, I am a more experienced trainer than her," Ash boasted with a smirk.

Delia placed the photo album on the desk and shook her head for a moment, "you know Ash, just because you're more experienced it doesn't mean you should boast," Delia told her son with a frown, she placed her hands on her hips and frowned at her son's over confidence, "just remember to have a good time alright," she instructed her son before getting ready to finish off the call, "I hope to hear from you again Ash," Delia stated hopefully.

"I will call back later on mom," Ash replied before hanging up. Ash got out of the seat and walked to the pokeball transporter, he dialled up the numbers to call the professor.

An elderly man appeared on the screen wearing a red shirt with his white lab coat over it, "Ash, it's good to see you, is there anything I can do for you?" the Professor asked in a hurried manner.

"You seem to be in a hurry Professor," Ash replied with an uncertain expression.

Professor Oak turned to the monitor showing off three children getting ready to start their journeys, "yes today is the start of the journey for three new trainers, Leaf, Mark and Sakura," Oak replied with a proud smile.

"That's awesome; the reason why I called is because I would like to see if you can send my Gible over?" Ash requested quickly as he kept his attention on the three starting trainers.

Professor Oak quickly placed the dragon's pokeball on the teleportation device and pressed the button, in a flash the red and white device was instantly sent to Ash, "no need for thanks Ash, because I really need to give the next twelve trainers their starter pokemon, you really are an influence on the young kids these days," Professor Oak explained before allowing Ash to say his goodbyes to the kids and the professor.

Ash grabbed the device and looked on his shoulder to see his partner pokemon standing there, a bit of sweat start to show on his face, "wow, I guess the professor is a little busy these days," Ash chuckled while getting up to walk to the front counter, "Nurse Joy, can I please get my Pokemon checked up? Just in case," Ash enquired, he handed over the pokeballs to the pink haired nurse and turned around to find a younger teen rushing into the medical facility wearing light blue overalls, blonde hair and a pair of glasses.

He walked up to the main counter and waited for the nurse to return to the desk, with his three pokeballs, placing them on the desk in a panic, tapping his foot on the ground until the pinkette arrived, "please Nurse Joy, I am in hurry, today is the day I start running the gym and my sister will never leave me alone until I get the check up on my pokemon," the blonde haired trainer.

'A gym leader, I wonder will he be strong, judging by what he said he might not be much of a challenge,' Ash thought to himself, he walked over to a seat and sat down waiting for his pokemon, he picked up a piece of paper and started to read it, "oh good, it seems like I will be relaxing tonight with a meal, I will challenge the gym leader tomorrow.

_(The Outskirts of Lumiose City)_

Serena was walking through the flower fields in awe of the beauty that was on display around her, small cream colored pokemon holding onto small flowers were hovering around her, she pulled out a camera to take a picture of the tiny pokemon, the gentle breeze pushed the light pokemon with ease, "wow, those Fkabébé are so cute," Serena pointed out with joy, walking slowly as she grabbed one of her pokeballs, 'if I can catch one of them, I will surprise him,' Serena thought, a braod smile crept across her face.

Serena moved closer against the wind so that the fairy types wouldn't know that she was approaching, she quickly and without warning tossed a pokeball at the little pokemon trapping it inside the red and white device, waiting for the moment, her pokeball began to sway from side to side, waiting for what seemed like forever the starting trainer continued to hope that the small pokemon would remain inside, the ball stopped moving and the pokeball signified the capture of the new pokemon, "Yes I caught a Flabébé," Serena celebrated while kneeling down to pick up her pokeball.

Serena looked up to see the clouds rolling in, the wind started to pick up in strength. The new trainer gazed around to see a storm gathering, she started to panic about the prospect about being caught in the bad weather, "on no, there is storm coming, I better hurry to Santalune City," Serena reminded herself, she ran off towards city as the first rumbles of thunder started to roar through the air causing the wild pokemon to flee in terror as the clouds started to darken the sky.

The rain started to pour causing Serena's hair to become saturated very quickly, she started to pant after the long run towards the Pokemon Center, dripping from the heavy rain, she looked back to see the rain falling at a heavier. More new trainers entered the building as the sound of the thunder crashed through the air causing the windows to rattle slight, the dark sky started to light up with the lightning.

As the lightning and thunder began to intensify Serena started to flinch at the sound, "I hate thunder and lightning!" Serena cried out as she placed her hands over her ears and closed her eyes in fear.

As the storm progress Serena looked around to see people taking care of their pokemon, she walked up to the front counter, she pulled out her pokeballs and placed them on the counter, "so you need me to give your pokemon a check-up, there is also a room where you can dry up." The nurse stated knowingly as she took the pokemon from the blonde haired woman.

"Thanks Nurse Joy," Serena replied with a smile. The young lady rushed to the room and opened the door, she quickly locked the door, and she looked around the room and turned the light on to see what was going on. Removing her bag, she pulled out a towel and extra clothes, she took off her hat and started to dry her hair.

_(An hour later)_

Serena walked out of the room feeling more refreshed, she looked out the window to see that the storm hadn't fully passed, but wasn't as bad as it was earlier, "this sure beats what my mom, had planned for me," Serena stated while remembering the harsh training she was being placed under. Serena walked out into the main hall and walked over to the phone to call her mother, 'the last couple of days have been interesting,' Serena thought with a joyous smile, she pressed in the numbers and waited for her mother to pick up the phone on the other end.

After ten second her mother picked up the phone, appearing on the screen was a woman with shoulder length brown hair, "hello dear, how has your journey been so far and what pokemon have you caught?" Serena mother asked with great curiosity.

"Well mom, I started with Fennekin and I have caught a Skiddo and a Flabébé," Serena replied with great pride.

"No Rhyhorn?" her mother asked in displeasure.

"No mom, I don't even want to consider being a Rhyhorn Racer, I want to choose my own path, and I think I have someone that can inspire me," Serena replied with a frown.

"But being a Rhyhorn Racer is a family tradition," the older woman retorted with sadness.

Serena puffed up her cheeks and crossed her arms she looked away and with disappointed expression, "I might like all pokemon mom, but it doesn't mean I will follow whatever road you set for me, I want to discover what I want to do for myself," Serena commented while her mother listened with shock in her eyes, "if it means I break family tradition, then I don't care, plus me meeting Ash Ketchum has given me something to aim for, to beat him at the Kalos League," Serena explained to her mother who shook her head in shame.

"Serena, you know I will support you in whichever way I can, but I feel that you should aim to be who you want," the mother stated with concern for her daughter, "you still lack experience in the world," she stated with a frown, as memories of Serena getting hurt filled her mind.

"I know, I don't know everything, maybe mom that is the reason why I am traveling with pokemon," Serena admitted with a confident smile.

"Alright, just remember to do your best," Serena's mother finally submitted to her daughter's determination. "I look forward to hear from you again Serena," the mother said with a smile.

"It isn't like her to submit to what I said, she has always wanted me to become a Rhyhorn Racer, but I have decided to follow my own path," Serena told herself as the bells chimed and the local Nurse Joy called out to her.

Serena hopped up and walked over to the front counter, she picked up her pokemon and smiled at the attending nurse, "thank you Nurse Joy," Serena thankfully told the nurse before turning around to see the weather had finally cleared, 'Ash, I wonder how you are going, I bet you already have a badge now,' Serena thought, not knowing that they both shared the same bad luck to start their journeys, 'plus Ash is more experienced as trainer than I am," Serena reminded herself as she walked out of the medical facility.

Serena looked around for a moment to see water dripping off the leaves and the sun starting to set, she walked slowly towards the Pokemon Gym with thoughts of how her first battle was going to go. While walking towards the gym Serena started to think about the pokemon she wanted to use in the battle, "if she only has two pokemon, I will go with Fennekin and Flabébé" Serena told herself calmly.

As she entered the building Serena looked around to see that a woman with short blonde hair, wearing a white shirt, green jeans and black shoes, "there everything is ready to take a picture of my pokemon," the woman stated with an energetic tone, she turned around to call out her pokemon, it was in that moment that she spotted her challenger, "oh a challenger, I wasn't expecting one for another two weeks," the woman said with a disappointed attitude.

"Shouldn't you be expecting a challenger? That is the reason you are a gym leader right?" Serena questioned the lady with a sigh.

"Yeah, but I wanted to get my pokemon's pictures taken while I was having a break," the older lady said with a smirk.

"Fine I Serena formally challenge you to a battle," Serena proclaimed the challenge to the gym leader with great assurance.

"Fine, I will battle you, the world famous Viola accepts you challenge," the woman known as Viola decreed, she walked towards the battlefield with her two pokeballs, ready to face the challenger, "it will be a two on two battle," Viola told the new trainer with a smirk.

"Fine by me," Serena retorted happily.

"Surskirt, let's go," Viola called out a small blue pokemon with four legs and a cream colored top.

"Okay, so she is using a bug type, go Flabébé," Serena called out her first pokemon to battle.

The two respective trainers stood ready as they waited for their respective moves, "alright Serena, I will start things off, Surskit attack with Bubble Beam," Viola instructed her first pokemon.

"Flabébé dodge the attack, then use Fairy Wind," Serena countered loudly.

The little fairy pokemon sent out a gust of wind towards the incoming attack pushing it back slightly, but was soon overpowered by the water type move, Serena gasped at the sight of her recently caught pokemon being overpowered by the gym leader's pokemon, "you didn't expect it to be easy did you?" Viola remarked with a grin.

Serena started to grit her teeth knowing that the gym leader was a more experienced trainer, 'so this is what Ash has been facing all this time, tougher battles that are nothing like normal trainers,' Serena thought as a broad smile graced her lips, "perfect a new challenge for me to face," Serena replied as her pokemon quickly dodged the attack from the bug type pokemon, "her Surskit is fast, but I will still defeat it," Serena proclaimed with growing confidence.

"Alright Surskit, finish off this foe with Ice Beam," Viola instructed her pokemon while punching the air in front of her.

"A powerful attack, alright Flabébé dodge Ice Beam, then use Razor Leaf," Serena called out for another attack. The small pokemon dodged the frigid attack and unleashed a barrage of leaves at the bug type pokemon.

The attack landed dealing significant damage to the bug type, "no way a critical hit," Viola said in shock as her pokemon tried to get back up; "use Bubble Beam again," Viola instructed her pokemon, the pond skater pokemon unleashed a barrage of bubbles towards Serena's pokemon.

"Razor Leaf again," Serena instructed her pokemon with her eyes firmly on the water type pokemon.

As the barrage of bubbles moved towards the fairy type pokemon, it unleashed a powerful volley of leaves, the barrage of leaves sliced through the bubbles and then headed straight towards the water type pokemon knocking it out of the battle, "no way," Viola cried out in amazement, she recalled her pokemon and pulled out her next pokeball, "this battle is far from over Serena, go Vivillon," Viola called out a bug type pokemon with pink wings.

The blonde haired trainer looked at the butterfly like pokemon and clenched her fists, 'so this is Viola's strongest pokemon,' Serena thought, she gulped and grew a little nervous. She turned her attention to a tired fairy type pokemon and started to think about a strategy to win this battle, 'alright, I don't think Flabébé will last much longer, but if I can deal some damage to her Vivillon Fenekin will have an easier time of the battle,' Serena thought to herself as she refocused on the battle at hand, "Flabébé attack with Fairy Wind," Serena instructed her pokemon for the first attack of the round.

"Not this time, Vivillon, counter with Bug Buzz," Viola replied to Serena's command, the two pokemon unleashed their respective attacks but the soundwave from Vivillon soon pushed the fairy type attack back towards the foe, the bug type attack crashed into Flabébé knocking it out of the battle.

Serena gasped in shock at the result of the round, it came to a sudden conclusion, leaving her to wonder what her next move was going to be, with only one pokemon to choose from, it was going to be an uphill battle for her, even with a pokemon that had the type advantage, "thank you Flabébé," Serena recalled her fallen pokemon, "Fennekin, time to make a show of it," Serena called out her starter pokemon.

"Oh a fire type, this will be fun," Viola chimed as her pokemon flew around the battlefield.

Serena smiled for a moment and shook her head, "you seem to be enjoying yourself," Serena pointed out with certainty.

Viola nodded in approval and pointed towards her bug type pokemon, "there is no way we are going to lose to a fire type right Vivillon?" Viola asked her teammate, "Psybeam now," Viola instructed her pokemon.

"Dodge the attack Fennekin, then use Ember," Serena instructed her pokemon. As the bug type fired a burst of psychic energy from its antennae, fennekin was dodging the attacks waiting for an opening to attack the foe, Serena remained patient.

"Keep firing Psybeam Vivillon," Viola instructed her pokemon.

Serena continued to instruct her fire type to dodge waiting for the chance to unleash a counter attack, but before she could give the okay to unleash her fire type attack her Fennekin was hit by a powerful Psybeam, "Fennekin no!" Serena screamed out in horror, but much to her relief her fire starter got back up and growled at the bug type pokemon, it started to glow a bright red, Serena started to realize that this next attack would be the one that wins her the battle, "come on Fennekin you can do it," Serena complimented.

"Finish it off with Psybeam Vivillon," Viola commanded her pokemon.

"Wait for the last second to dodge, then use Ember," Serena instructed her pokemon. Fennekin watched the attack approaching, the fire fox pokemon leapt into the air dodging the attack, in mere moments the fire type unleashed a powerful blast of fiery embers at the bug type, the added power of Blaze caused the gym leader and her pokemon to freeze in awe at the powerful fire type attack approaching them.

Before she could give the command to dodge, Ember smashed into the bug type dealing immense damage knocking out the bug type pokemon giving Serena the victory in her first gym battle, "amazing, I can't believe you just defeated me in battle," Viola acknowledged her defeat against Serena and her pokemon.

Serena was jumping up and down with joy as her Fennekin joined in on the celebrations, the fire type jumped into the trainers hands as she began to spin around in joy, "too bad Ash wasn't here to watch an awesome battle," Serena said while being approached by the gym leader.

"So who is this Ash?" Viola asked the victorious trainer.

"Ash, well he is an experienced trainer, easily way better than me," Serena replied while Viola gulped at the information she received, the gym leader turned around and rushed out of the building, "hey where are you going?" Serena asked the gym leader.

Viola turned around and smiled at the younger trainer, "I am going to get more bug pokemon and train, I need to be stronger if I am going to defeat this Ash you speak of," Viola replied with a giggle.

Serena walked out with the badge and her fire type pokemon next to her, she looked down and smiled, "you know Fennekin, I guess there are more challenges out there for both of us to face," Serena commented while seeing the sun finally setting over the horizon, 'I wonder if Ash has won his first badge, can't see why not,' Serena thought while kneeling down to pick up her starter pokemon.

_(Lumiose City, the next day)_

Ash rushed out of the Medical facility after a good night's sleep, running through the busy morning streets of Lumiose, confident of his battle against the gym leader of the city, "you ready buddy? Time to make our debut in this region," Ash enquired with an excited expression, his partner pokemon. Ash continued to walk through the city until he reached the middle of the city, in front of him was a towering structure, he looked around to see the other buildings surrounding the tower, "amazing this City is huge, I thought this city was big, but this puts Celedon City and Lilycove City to shame."

After entering the gym Ash spotted the gym leader and a young girl with short blond hair, wearing a brown blouse, a white skirt and black shorts, "brother, stop being so inventing stuff, you have a challenger here," the young girl complained while the gym leader walked out of the back of the gym and towards the battlefield, "Clemont, hurry up and battle with this trainer!" the young girl ordered her brother.

"Bonnie, I have all day you know, it isn't like he wants to rush the battle," Clemont told his sister with a frown.

"My name is Ash Ketchum and I challenge the gym leader to a battle," Ash called out to the gym leader with a confident tone.

'There goes my day off, I really wanted to invent some gadgets today,' Clemont complained to himself, he looked up to see the trainer and his Pikachu, his confident expression, 'oh great, my first challenger and he seems like a strong opponent,' Clemont thought with a less than confident expression. "I accept your challenge Ash," Clemont eventually replied to the trainer.

"Good, time to get this battle started, Pancham, I choose you," Ash called for his first pokemon.

Clemont walked towards his side of the battlefield with his pokeball in hand, "Magneton, let's go," Clemont called for his first pokemon to battle.

Ash smiled at the pokemon, "a Magneton, it has been a while since I have seen one of those," Ash commented while his Pancham was raring to go in the battle.

"Use Discharge Magneton," Clemont commanded, his pokemon sent out a burst of electricity in every direction while Ash smirked at the challenge that rested before him.

"Alright them, Pancham dodge the attack then use Arm Thrust," Ash instructed his fighting type pokemon with certainty. His fighting type pokemon easily dodged the attacks and charged towards the steel type pokemon, the fighting types opened up its palms and started to hit the magnet pokemon with vicious blows, after four hits the fighting type landed back in front of Ash, 'amazing this pokemon has a lot of potential,' Ash thought as he looked over to the new pokemon.

Clemont started to grit his teeth as his pokemon fell back towards him after the powerful attack, "alright, attack with Gyro Ball," Clemont commanded his pokemon. His pokemon started to spin around while rushing towards Ash's pokemon.

"Move aside Pancham, then use Vital Throw," Ash instructed his fighting type pokemon with great assurance, as the smaller pokemon leapt away from the attack, it grabbed the steel type and threw it onto the ground causing immense damage to the gym leader's pokemon.

Clemont recalled his pokemon and got ready to call out another pokemon, "Emolga, time to battle," Clemont called for his second pokemon to face off against Ash's first pokemon, "start off with Aerial Ace," Clemont instructed his ele-squirrel pokemon.

"Great there is no dodging that attack," Ash reminded himself as his pokemon took the hit, "Pancham, are you alright?" Ash asked his pokemon.

"Finish it with Discharge," Clemont ordered his pokemon to unleash a powerful blast of electricity on the, a blast of electricity crashed into Pancham as it was getting back to its feet.

"No Pancham!"Ash yelled out in horror. After the attack cleared up Ash recalled his pokemon, knowing that it was a lost round, "not bad Clemont, let's see how you go with this, Gible I choose you," Ash called for his dragon type pokemon.

"Alright, Emolga attack with Aerial Ace," Clemont ordered his pokemon with certainty.

"Again with this, Gible attack with Dragon Claw," Ash quickly instructed his dragon type pokemon, his dragon rushed towards the charging electric type pokemon with a glowing white claw. The two pokemon crashed into one another, pushing one another back, Gible raring to attack again while Emolga got ready to charge up for the next attack, "Alright Gible attack Stone Edge," Ash commanded the land shark pokemon.

"Use Discharge to destroy the stones," Clemont ordered his small pokemon.

Gible unleashed a barrage of stones towards the opposing pokemon, Emolga released another powerful burst of electricity, the two attacks collided causing the dust to rise into the air, without seeing what was going Emolga was hit by two stones knocking it to the ground, "yes, nicely done Gible," Ash complimented his pokemon.

"Not good, this guy is really good, I bet he has at least four badges," Clemont stated with a smile.

"Four Badges? No I don't have a single badge yet," Ash replied much to the shock of everyone in the building. Ash refocused on the battle and got ready for one last attack, "Gible finish Emolga off with Dragon Claw," Ash ordered with confidence while cutting down with his right arm, his pokemon charged at the electric pokemon with a glowing white arm, as Emolga got back up it was hit by another powerful dragon type move knocking it out of the battle.

"Amazing even with no badges this guy is an extremely powerful trainer," Clemont stated with shock, he recalled his pokemon from the battle and readied his final pokemon for the battle, much to his shock he watched Ash recall his dragon type pokemon, "Heliolisk, time to win this battle," Clemont called out a yellow electric lizard with a black head and a black frill surrounding it's neck.

"Oh nice, a pokemon I haven't seen before," Ash commented while pulling out his new pokedex to scan the pokemon, "this will be fun," Ash acknowledged while signalling to his partner pokemon, "Start this round off with Quick Attack," Ash ordered his pokemon.

"Heliolisk, use Quick Attack too," Clemont ordered his pokemon.

The two pokemon started to charge towards one another, not even flinching the two pokemon slammed into one another pushing them back towards their respective trainers, Ash smiled at the new pokemon seeing it as a challenge, growing more excited at how this battle was going for him, "try Iron Tail Pikachu," Ash ordered with great confidence.

"Parabolic Charge," Clemont issued his instruction to counter Pikachu, as soon as the electric charge moved towards the electric mouse Pikachu easily dodged the attack and slammed a his stiffened tail into Clemont's pokemon.

Ash smirked knowing that wouldn't have been enough to knock out the opposing pokemon, "almost forgot, Heliolisk is an electric type right, so that means steel type moves are less effective," Ash reminded himself calmly.

"Heliolisk attack with Bulldoze," Clemont ordered his pokemon, the generator pokemon slowly got back to its feet and stomped the ground sending a shockwave of dirt towards the electric mouse pokemon, dealing great damage to Ash's pokemon.

"So a ground type move, nice, Pikachu finish this with Volt Tackle," Ash commanded his partner pokemon. Pikachu started to rush towards the opposing electric pokemon, he gained a thunderous aura as he ran closer.

"Heliolisk, type Parabolic Charge again," Clemont issued his command.

The two electric attacks crashed into one another, but Pikachu soon overpowered the generator pokemon crashing into it with incredible force, "yes, what a hit," Ash pumped his fist into the air in joyous celebration, he returned his focus on the battle quickly and noticed Heliolisk was getting back up, panting heavily after the powerful hit, his smile wiped from his face, he then watched the electric lizard falling to the ground, unable to battle against Ash's team.

Clemont recalled his pokemon and started walking towards Ash, with the badge in his hand, "man, you're really good, I guess you battled gym leaders before," Clemont stated with a proud smile.

"Thanks Clemont," Ash replied thankfully as he politely took the badge and placed it in his badgecase.

"Not a problem, I might be the new gym leader, but I know I still have a long way to go," Clemont admitted proudly as he looked at his pokeballs.

"Not a problem Clemont, you're a good gym leader, keep doing what you're doing now and you will be a tough opponent for anyone, even Serena," Ash complimented the gym leader with great pride.

"Serena?" Clemont asked the trainer.

"She is a beginning trainer, but I sense that she has a lot of potential," Ash replied with confidence.

"I see, so I better keep training then," Clemont replied with a nervous smile.

His sister walked up to his side and smiled at the trainer, "wow, you're really strong, please comeback and have a rematch against my brother sometime," Bonnie requested with joy.

"Will do, I enjoyed this battle," Ash replied happily.

Meanwhile nearing the northern parts of the city a man with spiky red hair wearing a black suit was walking through the city, "is everything going to plan, soon our new world will be upon us," he said with a smirk.

"Sir, our preparations are almost complete," said a Team Flare grunt.

"Excellent, keep everything quiet for now, I will give the signal to recommence our operations to the rest of the world," the man stated calmly as he looked around the metropolis, 'we will change this world and make it a paradise for Team Flare only,' the man thought while walking through the city casually.

* * *

**The two have won their first gym badges in hard fought battles, but a new challenge will rise soon enough in Team Flare. **

**Next time Chapter 3: Parfum Palace and the new challenge.**

**What is this new challenge? It has something to do with their friendly rivalry **


	3. Parfum Palace and the New Challenge

**Chapter 3: Parfum Palace and the New Challenge.**

_What this new challenge is, well you need to read and find out what it is, should add some fun to this rivalry and romance between the two, but first a special moment between the two, and it should go without saying what that moment is._

* * *

Ash walked away from the Pokemon Center a day after his battle against the gym leader, it was a clear day with no breeze, his Pikachu leapt on his shoulder, starting his journey back to the town where the Snorlax was blocking the road, "you know buddy, I certainly hope Snorlax isn't there today and we can recommence our journey to the Kalos League," Ash explained while walking towards the city exit, he looked back to see the skyscrapers and the large tower. Ash walked out of the city for a second time wondering what to do next, he pulled out his map and looked at the roads towards the other cities, "well, I guess I can go to Cyllage City," Ash commented before almost falling over after someone crashed into him.

"Ouch," a familiar voice cried out.

Ash turned around to see Serena on the ground landing on her bottom, "well if isn't my cute rival," Ash said with a cheeky tone.

Serena looked up to find Ash extending his hand out to her, "thanks Ash," Serena replied while taking her rival's hand, she got back to her feet and smiled at her friend, "I wasn't able to go too far on the eastern road," Serena commented with a smile.

"Yeah, I wasn't able to get too far on the western road, because of a Snorlax, but I did get a Voltage Badge," Ash replied proudly as his partner pokemon leapt off of his left shoulder and on to the ground, "so how did you go Serena?" Ash asked with great hope in the blonde haired trainer.

"I also got one badge, the Bug Badge from Santelune City," Serena retorted with her left hand clenched.

"So where are you going next?" Ash asked the young woman.

"Well it seems like I will be heading pass the Parfum Palace, hey I have an idea, what about for now, we travel to the palace together?" Serena enquired with a hopeful grin; she walked ahead of Ash and waved her right hand out in joy.

Ash started to laugh at himself knowing that he was going to travel to the palace for the first time, 'maybe that situation with Snorlax was meant to happen,' Ash thought, he walked quickly towards the city's exit and followed Serena, it was the first time he would be able to talk to her about her ambitions.

After catching up with the less experience trainer Serena turned her attention to Ash, "so Ash, about earlier, when I bumped into you, what you said," Serena asked while gulping for a moment, she looked up to see the small road heading towards the suburban town of Camphrier. It was then that she thought about the moment she hurt herself in the forest, "you know Ash, when we were kids, I hurt myself and you helped me out," Serena explained the past to Ash.

"I did? Man my memories aren't all that good," Ash replied much to Serena's surprise.

Serena looked at the ground and started to think of a way to remind Ash again of their childhood, she pulled a small bit of cloth from her pocket and showed it to Ash, "see Ash, this was the same bandage you wrapped me knee with," Serena pointed out while smiling at the small items.

Ash inspected the item and a small bit of memory appeared in his mind, "yeah and after that I helped you back to Pallet Town," Ash stated with a smile.

Serena nodded and smiled with great joy as she walked into the town with Ash, "also, there is something else Ash, we were holding hands," Serena pointed out much to Ash's surprise, he couldn't remember too much, he was too focused on the fact that he was going to be a pokemon master at that time and was thinking about his building rivalry with Gary, "but I know you, you had this little rivalry with Gary right?" Serena asked Ash who was now feeling ashamed at forgetting his past.

"So Serena, why did you move to Kalos?" Ash asked his rival with a frown.

"Well my mother wanted to show Rhyhorn racing to the rest of the world, I had no interest but she insists that I should be a Rhyhorn racer, even going as far as making me train to become one," Serena replied with a frown, remembering the times she spent training with her mother, "there is so much I want to do, so I have been recording it in this," Serena remarked while showing Ash a small book with her writing in it.

"You're writing a book?" Ash asked the young trainer.

Serena nodded at the question and gently took the book back, "I want to follow my own path, not have someone decide it for me," Serena replied with a smile. Thinking about Ash and how much experience he has had in the many years of him travelling, "say Ash, what have you seen during your journeys? I know you have seen a lot of things, so please tell me," Serena requested while the two continued to walk through the small town.

Ash looked over to his Pikachu and nodded, "well Serena, I have seen a lot of things throughout the world, travelled to many regions, Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh and most recently Unova, this is actually my first time her in Kalos," Ash replied with a proudly, he walked towards the exit of the town to see the road dividing in two separate directions.

"I take it there are lots of pokemon I have never seen before, what about other things like events?" Serena asked curiously.

"Well in Hoenn, Sinnoh, Kanto and Johto there is something called a Pokemon Contest, this is something a few of my friends compete in," Ash explained to the younger trainer, stating the events that he witnessed in his travels around the Pokemon World.

Serena and Ash stopped for a moment to catch a break they both sat down in front of the river to rest up, she pulled out a few sandwiches which she had prepared earlier, "so a contest ha?" Serena wondered what it was like, it was the first time she had heard of contests, it was something new to her and was thinking about what it would be like, she looked ahead to see the road which was lined with flowers and filled with small pokemon walking around, "what is this contest Ash? I would like to hear more from you," Serena asked her rival with her curiosity building in this new idea.

"Alright Serena, a contest is something that exhibits the beauty of pokemon through appeal rounds," Ash explained as directly as he possibly could, "so for example you can create combinations of moves to make a beautiful appeal, but it would be better if I showed you," Ash remarked while standing up with his partner pokemon.

"Appeals?" Serena questioned the trainer in a puzzled manner.

Ash turned around with Pikachu standing in front of him, "yeah, but it has been a few years since I have tried this, so I will be a little rusty," Ash confessed with a nervous expression.

"So you have done this before?" Serena asked in a curious tone.

Ash nodded before turning his focus back onto his partner pokemon, "Pikachu, fire an Electro Ball into the air," Ash made the first instruction in his appeal example. His partner pokemon fired a ball of electricity into the air, it started to become stationary, "now jump up and slice it with Iron Tail," Pikachu leapt into the air with his tail glowing white, he spun around and sliced the attack in three directions, "now finish the display with Thunderbolt aimed at the three Electro Balls," Ash instructed his pokemon, with a mighty blast of electricity the electric mouse caused the Electro Balls to explode with a wonderful display of light falling to the ground.

Watching the display Serena was in awe at the beauty that was in front of her, impressed by the sample that she had witnessed, she started clapping at the display, "wow that was impressive Ash," Serena cheered with joy.

"Thanks, you know there are people better than me, two of my friends are really amazing at contests," Ash replied while scratching the back of his head.

"So is there anything else about these contests?" Serena asked as her interest started to get beyond her control.

"Yeah there is more, there is the contest battle rounds, where eight coordinators that make pass the appeals round compete in a five minute battle for one of these," Ash answered while pulling out a tattered half ribbon.

"Half a ribbon?" Serena questioned the trainer, she seemed puzzled at what Ash was showing her.

Ash shook his head and started to laugh, "no Serena, this I got at the Terracotta Town contest, it was unofficial but the battle was amazing," Ash replied with a proud smile, his memories flashed back towards the battle he had with May, the cheering crowd and the high quality battle that he and May were using, "in an official contest you would get extra time and the winner would get a ribbon," Ash explained what would be given at the end of an official contest.

"Sounds interesting," Serena complied with greater interest.

"Yeah, but there is more, a coordinator loses when he/she has less points than their opponent, to take points you must either damage your opponents pokemon or dodge their attacks, the same would happen to you as well," Ash explained the rules of the contest battle.

"So is there anything else about the ribbon?" Serena asked while staring at the half ribbon Ash kept as a memento.

"Yes, once you get five ribbons, you can enter the Grand Festival, there you can compete for the title of top coordinator and win a large golden trophy called the Ribbon Cup," Ash explained further about the hard work about being a coordinator.

"Wow, it sounds like being a coordinator is hard work," Serena stated while starting to think more about her goals in her journey.

He tried to remember everything but he looked up to see the food was all gone, he and Serena were too busy talking about contests not realizing that they had eaten all the food, "well I guess we better head to Parfum Palace," Ash suggested while packing up the containers.

"Hey Ash, when we reach Parfum Palace, do you think we can have a quick battle, a two on two, to train our recently caught pokemon?" Serena asked Ash with great hope.

"Sure Serena, it should be interesting," Ash replied confidently.

The two trainers walked towards the tree lined route to see the palace dominating the horizon in front of them, the building with white walls and a blue roof spanning the top, at the front the two saw a large gold gate with two guard wearing mostly black suits, amazed at the sight that was beholding them they moved faster towards the massive building.

Ash and Serena walked up to the Palace with the hopes of getting in, "halt, it costs one thousand pokedollars to get in," one of the guards decreed with a frown, placing his staff between the two trainers and the gate.

"A thousand, geez that's not nice especially for tourists like us," Serena replied with disdain, Serena leant into Ash's ear and started to whispers, "I don't have a thousand pokedollars."

Ash smiled and nodded, "it's fine I will pay for you," Ash whispered back, Ash walked up to the guard and gave him two thousand pokedollars, "I am paying for the both of us," Ash told the guard calmly.

"Very well," the guard replied, he opened the gate and allowed Ash and Serena to pass through the gates.

Ash and Serena walked pass the massive gates and towards the main entrance, "thank you Ash," Serena told Ash happily. Ash opened the door and allowed Serena in first, "oh wow this place is beautiful, Ash quick come in," Serena called over to Ash.

Ash looked around to see the golden statues that lined the entrance hall, one of a Milotic which was front and center, but in front of the massive golden statue was a man who was starting to worry about the loss of a pokemon, "my Furfrou, what could she be?" the man asked as his panic started to become more obvious, he started to run around the room searching for his precious pokemon, "where is she? My precious Furfrou," the man continued to ask.

"A Furfrou?" Ash enquired while Serena shrugged her shoulders.

"Ash, use your pokedex to find out what a Furfrou is," Serena suggested.

Ash hit his head and started to chuckle, "oh forgot I had one of those," Ash replied while Serena shook her head in disbelief, "I try to rely on a pokedex as little as possible," Ash professed with a cheeky grin, this cause Serena to exhale with displeasure, but still she had hoped that Ash would have learned something during his travels.

After looking up the information on a white pokemon with a black face and walking on all fours, Ash started to think of a way to help out, "we will help," Serena suggested before Ash could raise his voice.

"But what about our battle?" Ash asked with a surprised tone.

Serena smiled at Ash and walked towards the door in front of the entrance area, "it's always good to help people Ash, plus we have plenty of time to have our quick battle," Serena replied with joy, "hurry up Ash," Serena called over to her rival.

Ash drooped his head and sighed at the blonde's enthusiasm, 'for a rival, she seems to be really passionate to help people out,' Ash complained to himself, he rushed to the door, and looked out to the bridge to see a large garden, he spotted another statue this time with a towering Golurk. Amazed at the garden that spanned the area in front of him, "okay Serena, how are we going to find Furfrou now?" Ash asked his rival in a cynical manner.

With her jaw dropping, she too couldn't believe the size of the garden, "I think we split up," Serena replied slowly, she gulp feeling intimidated by the size of the garden, 'wow I thought he meant a garden not something the size of a small village,' Serena thought while scanning the garden in hopes of finding the stray pokemon.

Ash closed his eyes and sighed at the young woman's response, "so we haven't got a plan, you rushed into this without thinking, man I thought I was bad," Ash complained still feeling the shame of being such a rash person deep down inside, he looked down to his partner pokemon and started to smile at him, "alright, it would be better if we find the pokemon by splitting up," Ash conceded, he walked ahead and went to the left side of the garden while Serena took the right side, Ash turned his attention to his rival and started to think about his childhood, 'she has really grown up since the old days,' Ash thought, he walked through the garden maze with the hopes of finding the Palace owner's pet pokemon.

Meanwhile Serena was walking around on her own, she called out her starter pokemon to help her with the search for the normal type pokemon, she walked through the mazes, surrounded by shrubbery, "somehow Fennekin, I think this was a bad idea," Serena stated while her fire type looked at the trainer nervously, the fire fox pokemon tilted its head and let out a little cry to get the trainer's attention, it pointed towards the shaking of the bushes.

It was then a dog like pokemon appeared in front of her, "hey that's Furfrou," Serena gasped, she tried to approach it, but the pokemon ran away, too fast for Serena to catch it, "wow that was fast," Serena grumbled. Serena ran out of the maze as quickly as possible trying to find the shaggy looking pokemon, "Fennekin, did you see which way Furfrou go?" Serena asked her pokemon with an unsure expression.

The fire type shook its head and noticed Ash standing at other side of the garden, Fennekin pointed towards Ash. Ash was starting to approach the Furfrou , but as he got closer the pokemon started to back away, she watched from a distance hearing Ash trying to calm the pokemon down.

Serena stood back not wanting to get in the way of Ash's efforts, he started walking quietly towards the frightened pokemon again this time getting a little closer, Serena watched as the trainer, "is he trying to calm the pokemon down?" Serena asked herself quietly before noticing a blue glow from his right hand, she was perplexed at what she had seen, ignoring the surrounding areas, she began to think about, 'odd, I haven't seen that before,' Serena thought as her eyes remained glued on her right hand, "Fennekin what is that glowing from his hand?" Serena asked as she averted her gaze to the fire type pokemon.

Ash continued to approached the pokemon but was unsuccessful in his attempt to, "man that's annoying," Ash hissed while rubbing off some of the dirt on his clothes he turned around to see Serena standing at the other side of the garden, Ash walked over to the blonde haired trainer while thinking about another plan.

"Ash, that glowing on your hand, what is it?" Serena asked the trainer, she remained puzzled at what she had seen.

"Oh that glowing, right, I guess I should have told you about that, to be honest I didn't realize my right hand was glowing," Ash replied to Serena's question, but in an instant Serena grabbed the trainer's right hand and got a look at the glowing, but as quickly as she lifted his hand the blue light disappeared, "okay, that was aura, I can somehow use it, I never really perfected it," Ash admitted while using his left hand to scratch the back of his head.

Serena remained perplexed and continued to look around to see where the glowing could have been, "amazing, I thought only Lucario can use that sort of stuff, but I never thought a person could do that," Serena said, she quickly removed her hand and placed it at her side.

"Yeah a few of my friends have shown curiosity in my aura abilities, but you are the first to grab my hand to take a closer look," Ash admitted with laughter while Serena started to blush at her own actions, she started to feel her heart race a little, but she tried to ignore what was going on.

Ash and Serena turned their respective gazes to the direction of the pokemon, a gentle breeze was starting to build up, the trees were began to sway in the breeze, Ash and Serena continued their search in the garden maze, they called for the pokemon but to no avail. Ash and Serena continued to move through the large maze feeling concerned for the safety of the scared pokemon. After going their separate ways the two trainers returned to the middle of the garden, the sound of the water fountain was soothing, they looked up to see the bird pokemon flying overhead, "okay this is becoming a real pain Ash," Serena commented, she started to regain her breath after running around the garden for nearly an hour.

"I agree, it makes me think what we will get in return for this effort," Ash replied while the two pokemon from the respective trainers started to run around playing hide and seek in the area.

Serena watched the two pokemon playing and started to think about the pokemon that was running away from them, "Ash, I am starting to think that Furfrou doesn't want to be found," Serena stated with a more serious look in her eyes, she looked over to Ash who was nodding in agreement.

Ash looked towards the hedges and started to sigh, "yeah I could sense that Furfrou, was avoiding us, it didn't want to go back to the Palace owner," Ash replied, he placed his left hand over his chin and started to think about a way to corner the normal type pokemon. Ash looked around and started to formulate a plan, "you know if we stand in a certain spot we can for Furfrou into an area where it cannot escape," Ash suggested with a smirk.

Serena clicked snapped her fingers on her right hand and looked at areas they can use to start the plan, "If I stand here, which is the middle, you go that way and we can force Furfrou to head north from here," Serena suggest with a smile.

"Then I will call for you and I will standing in that area, that is where you move north to help corner Furfrou," Ash explained the rest of the plan to Serena.

"If it works it shows that we make a really good team," Serena commented while watching Ash walking towards the left side again to prevent Furfrou from escaping, Ash moved slowly and spotted the furry pokemon, it was then he made rush towards the pokemon, but as he moved in the pokemon ran north, "so close," Serena commented with a sigh.

Ash looked at Serena and nodded, "head to the left side and I will stay here!" Ash yelled out with a confident tone.

"Right," Serena replied, she ran to the left and towards the end of the maze, she spotted the dog like pokemon and walked towards it, "it will be fine Furfrou," Serena assured the pokemon, it looked towards the right to find Ash approach, it looked down towards the only free path it could take, Serena looked at Ash and pumped her right fist in a celebratory manner, "we did it Ash," Serena commented with great pride.

Ash and Serena walked down the path, to find the pokemon trying to look for an escape, "my dear Furfrou!" the man yelled out, the pokemon started to yelp knowing that it was caught, "we are going to give you a bath, brush you fur and we are going to make you look good," the man decreed with great joy while hugging the dog like pokemon.

"Um I don't think Furfrou likes that idea," Ash stated, but the man didn't reply, he was too busy pampering his pokemon with hugs of joy, 'I can see why Furfrou didn't want to be found,' Ash thought to himself, he looked down to see his partner pokemon staring in shock at the attention the man was giving his Furfrou.

Serena leant in to whisper into Ash's left ear, "I kind of feel sorry for Furfrou, it was trying to escape from this, I mean I would really hate this treatment," Serena stated quietly, this statement caused Ash to nod in agreement.

The man approached the duo with a blissful smile, "in honour of your hard work, there will be a fireworks display," the man declared with a smile.

"No that won't be necessary," Ash replied while waving his hands in front of his face.

"Yeah, I kind of agree, we didn't do too much," Serena replied to Ash's comments, 'in fact I think we caused more trouble for Furfrou,' Serena thought with disdain written over her face.

"No I insist, you two did a great thing, please be at the balcony tonight," the man stated while running away with his pokemon, not giving the two a chance to respond.

"So Serena, what should we do?" Ash asked his rival quietly.

Serena looked over to the palace and smiled, "well we can't exactly be rude to him, plus I think it would be nice to watch some fireworks tonight," Serena replied with a grin, she walked away from the dead end and back towards the palace, for a moment she looked at her right hand and pictured the moment she grasped Ash's hand, 'it wasn't exactly like that moment, but it certainly brought back old memories,' Serena thought as she looked back to see Ash walking slowly back towards the palace.

It was difficult for Ash to put into words the day's events, he met up with his rival, but having his memories flash in front of him, "you know buddy, before I was a trainer, I was really close friends with Serena," Ash remarked happily.

Serena tried everything to ignore her own actions but started to think more about what she had learned during the day, 'so Ash taught me something new, he even showed me something I never seen before,' Serena thought as she looked back to see Ash getting further and further behind, "I know his memory is pretty bad, but I think we can get back to our friendship," Serena reminded herself as her eyes looked down at her hand, "what was I thinking?" Serena asked herself while picturing the moment she grasped Ash's hand again.

After making back to the palace Ash and Serena looked around on their own, they weren't sure how to take the offer of a fireworks display, but they both knew they couldn't be rude and refuse the offer, Ash walked toured through some of the bedrooms, he was in awe at the grandeur of the rooms, the massive bed in the middle of the room and the art work that lined the walls, he looked around some more to see the mirror and draws that lined the walls at one side of the massive room, "you know buddy this place is amazing," Ash told his pokemon happily, he walked out of the room and walked down the hallway on his own, wondering where the next part of his journey would take him.

Serena in the meantime was quietly walking up the steps and noticed that the night time was starting to approach, she walked down the darkening halls and towards the balcony area, it was then she spotted Ash at the other end approaching the balcony, "I guess we are going to stay for a little while," Serena commented with a bright smile.

"Yeah I guess," Ash replied softly.

Ash and Serena walked out on the main deck and waited for the fireworks to start, "Ash can I see that map again?" Serena asked while waiting for the colorful display to begin.

One after the other rockets started to shoot up into the night sky, red, blue, green and purple, too many colors to remember, over the garden and into the night sky, illuminating the area around them, the patterns that shaped like pokeballs, Ash and Serena leaning on the balcony next to each other in admiration of the fireworks in their honour, as time went on more fireworks filled the night sky as the colors continued to fill the sky and explosions

Ash pulled the map out of his pockets and unfolded it, he placed it on the railing while the rival held it down with her right hand, "hey Ash, instead of a battle, how about we have a race?" Serena asked her friend with a broad smile.

"Where to?" Ash asked in response.

"To Shalour City, we get another two pokemon and another badge, the loser has to fulfil a request from the winner," Serena suggested with a broad smile.

"A race, but where would we start?" Ash asked in a puzzled manner.

"You can head back to Lumiose City and take the northern road," Serena replied with a bright grin.

"Oh great, now I have to head back to Lumiose City again," Ash sighed knowing that Serena was taking the longer road towards the target city, "but why are you taking the longer road?" Ash asked in a bewildered tone.

"Because the gym leader in Courmaline City is stronger than the second, and plus there is something I want to do south of Cyllage City," Serena replied with a confident smirk.

After finishing the layout of the race the first explosions of the fireworks started, catching the attention of Ash and Serena, their respective pokemon sat back and watched the duo keeping their attention on the display, the two remained quiet, in awe at the quality of the display, Serena's eyes were sparkling at the display, it was something that she hadn't seen in a while, Ash watched with amazement not taking his eyes away from fireworks.

Ash and Serena avoided eye contact, but it never stopped them from enjoying the show, it was harder for Serena to resist the urge to move her hand closer to Ash's, "this is the first time I have watched fireworks with you Ash," Serena stated but Ash ignored the gesture, maybe that was because Serena's voice was too quiet to hear of the explosions in the night sky, maybe that was because Serena was too nervous to say something out loud, her normal confidence was now sapped while being around Ash, 'we only met again nearly a week ago, but I feel nervous around Ash, why?' Serena asked herself, wanting to figure out why she was so nervous around the trainer.

After the short display had ended Serena turned her attention to Ash, "thanks for the great day Ash, it has been a long time since we have done something together," Serena commented with a smile as she walked towards her pokemon, 'I wonder what will happen next,' Serena thought to herself beaming at her pokemo, feeling excited about spending the day with her rival, holding onto her stater pokemon she gazed over her shoulder and smiled at Ash, he was looking over the balcony with the map under his hand, she had noticed that the sky had cleared of smoke from the fireworks, giving her a clear view of the stars in the night sky, staring at the stars and the moon which was dominating the sky and the sea of stars.

Ash folded up the map and thought about the race that was going to take place between him and Serena, he walked over to Pikachu and let him jump on his shoulder, "you know buddy, it seems like we are going to take a tough road ahead," Ash commented with a sigh, "but a challenge is a challenge and I will accept anything like that any time of the year," Ash declared while walking towards the end of the hall, he walked down the stairway and thought to himself about Serena's curiosity about his aura abilities, 'she seemed more interested than some of my other friends,' Ash thought while walking down the quiet halls of Parfum Palace.

Ash took one last look around before heading out into the front area of the palace to camp outside, not noticing Serena looking out the window of the palace, "contests, something I will want to try one day," Serena said while turning around to see the comfortable bed for the night's sleep in the palace. Serena grabbed her book and started to write about the day's events wanting to keep them forever in her book, "these memories will be important, but there is something else, I will find out what it is as my journey goes on," Serena reminded herself blissfully as the playback of her grabbing Ash's hand continued to play in her thoughts and that strange blue glow continued to make her think.

Ash sat next to his sleeping bag, looking up to the stars, wanting to think about the future journey that was before him, "you know Pikachu, when we finish here, we will need to find out what else is around in this world, make more friends," Ash commented while lifting his left hand up to picture the moment Serena grasped it to take a closer look at it due to his aura abilities.

"Fennekin, we continue our journey tomorrow," Serena told her starter pokemon, she looked around and thought about her childhood with Ash, "maybe one day, I can travel with Ash, without being his rival," Serena told herself, she recalled her pokemon and thought of another possibility, 'for the longest time, I had this feeling that I would meet Ash again, but there was something else, I myself am not certain as to what it is,' Serena thought to herself, but felt something stopping her from saying something to Ash, "what am I telling myself Ash is my rival and I must find a way of defeating him," Serena kept reminding herself while looking in the mirror, she looked towards the gates of the palace and nodded to herself, "tomorrow our race begins and maybe when we get to Shalour City we can have our battle," Serena prompted to herself with hopes that one day that she would get her battle against Ash.

* * *

**Chapter 3 is out of the way, I certainly hope you enjoyed the chapter, and now Serena is starting to show something, but Ash remains oblivious as to what it is, how will this race unfold? And what dangers will befall Ash and Serena in this race?**

**Next chapter will focus on one character, which one would you prefer Ash or Serena, either way the next two chapters will be one character each. This race will be fraught with dangers, like Team Flare.**

**Next time chapter 4: Let the Race Begin**

_Leave a request for which character should get all the focus in the next chapter, Ash or Serena._


	4. Let the Race Begin

**Chapter 4: Let the Race Begin.**

_The race to Shalour City begins now, who win this race and what will be the prize at the end, the mini arc race the Shalour begins here and now, please enjoy this chapter._

* * *

Ash and Serena approached the large gate ready to leave the palace, the sun was rising over the tree line, the wild pokemon were waking up and ready to start the day of activities, the gate started to creak as it slowly started to open, "ready Ash, because I will not lose to you," Serena declared with a smile," she returned her gaze to the gate and waited for it to open for a moment, her Fennekin at her feet waiting for the gate to finally open.

Ash remained calm as his partner pokemon got ready to start the race, "I won't lose either," Ash replied, he turned around and extended his hand out to the blonde haired trainer, "good luck you're going to need it," Ash said with a playful grin.

"Not as much as you, now one more rule we need to go with, in this region we can ride pokemon, there will be none of that unless you need to," Serena went over the rule she forgot to mention the previous night, "like for instance I need to do something in a town south of Cyllage City, so I will need to ride a pokemon to get to a certain cave," Serena pointed out while extending her hand out, the wind started to pick up causing her hair to whip around a little, she shook her rivals hand and nodded happily at him, 'I know what I would like to have from Ash, but I am still not one hundred percent certain if he will accept,' Serena thought to herself as she let go of his hand and turned back to the gate as it finally opened.

"So this race is on foot," Ash acknowledged. Ash turned back to the open gate and smiled, "ready," Ash started with confidence.

Serena got ready to start the race, "set."

"Go!" Ash and Serena yelled in unison before running down the road towards the intended target, the two rivals continued down the tree lined road, ignoring the people coming their way, they easily side stepped on their way towards the end of the path, "see you later!" the yelled at one another before turning towards their respective paths Ash towards Lumiose City and Serena heading towards Cyllage City.

Serena stopped running to see the road lined with flowers on the left and on her right a large river leading towards the cave, she looked up ahead to see a large building made of bricks, built on land that was surrounded by water, she walked up to it and started to think about some training for her pokemon, she hadn't done much trainer but sort of knew that it would be for the better, it might have slowed her down but it would be worth it for her in the end to make her team stronger, "I think I can slow down a bit, Ash won't be in much of a hurry either," Serena told herself, she pulled out her pokeball and recalled her starter pokemon. The blonde trainer walked up to the entry way and knocked on the door.

The door opened and a woman dressed in a black dress with a white apron allowed her in, "welcome to the Battle Chateau," the woman greeted the young trainer, Serena looked around the highly decorated main foyer and started to broadly smile at herself, "this place is where the rich can hone their skills, but a normal trainer can be invited," the woman stated, standing next to the inexperienced trainer, she pointed towards the stairways where there were sounds of battles coming from the top floor.

"Is this the perfect place for training, I have a rival I would like to beat in battle someday," Serena proclaimed while holding her starter pokemon's pokeball, the lady nodded and pointed towards the two doors in front of them, "thank you, I will get to some battling now," Serena decreed while walking up to one of the doors in the building.

Serena opened the door on the left to find a rich trainer standing waiting for a trainer to battle her, "ah a young lady is here to battle me," the gentleman stated with a smile, he walked up to the trainer and bowed at her, "a quick one on one battle sound good to you?" the man asked Serena calmly.

"Yes please," Serena replied politely.

"Alright little miss, time to battle, go Bagon," The man called out a blue bipedal dragon with a large grey crest.

"Alright go, Flabébé," Serena called out her pokemon to battle the trainer.

The man looked at the small pokemon and smiled at the girl who getting ready to face the dragon type pokemon, "ah that is a good choice young one," the elderly man stated, his dragon type pokemon prepared for battle, ready to take on the fairy type pokemon, "use Ember now," the man instructed his pokemon with great confidence.

"Dodge the attack then use Fairy Wind," Serena instructed her pokemon with vigour.

Flabébé dodged the incoming fire type attack and unleashed a stiff breeze towards the dragon type pokemon, the dragon pokemon dodged the attack and readied to unleash another attack on Serena's pokemon, "not bad little girl, but I know of the dragon type's weaknesses," the man stated while Serena gasped in shock at the missed attack, "now, use Headbutt," the man instructed his pokemon with great confidence.

"Bagon is coming to attack, Flabébé attack with Fairy wind," Serena ordered her pokemon to unleash a counter attack, as the dragon lowered its head, another blast of Fairy Wind blew towards the opposing pokemon, unable to get out of the way due to being in the air, the fairy attack slammed into Bagon dealing damage that was enough to knock it out in one hit.

The man chuckled in surprise as to seeing the young trainer's pokemon emerging victorious, "impressive young lady," the elderly man congratulated Serena on her victory.

"Thanks for the battle sir," Serena bowed her head in respect, she recalled her pokemon and walked back towards the door, she opened it to find a man with spiky red hair wearing a black suit talking to the person in charge of the Battle Chateau, "is that Sycamore's friend?" Serena asked herself silently.

The man putting on an act was walking around to investigate the building, "I am investigating the whereabouts of Team Flare, have you seen people dressed mostly in red?" the large man asked the owner with an act of concern.

Serena continued to watch the unfolding events fearing the man himself, 'who is he? He seems to want to find Team Flare, but didn't they disband a long time ago?' Serena asked herself while quietly opening the door, she walked towards the stairway in search for another battle against a person in the building.

"Excuse me miss, if you see anyone from Team Flare be sure not to approach them, they are a dangerous group," the man stated with a serious expression.

Serena watched the tall man walking towards the entrance of the building leaving her and the people perplexed at what was going on, Serena soon changed her mind about the training and left the Battle Chateau, she headed towards the cave at the end of the road and started to think, 'something isn't right about that man,' Serena thought with her right hand over her chin, it was like she could relate to Ash for that moment, she could sense something was wrong with his aura, but how could she tell that the man who warned her about Team Flare seem so untrustworthy.

Serena walked into the cave with the man's words echoing in her mind, "the investigation into Team Flare's activities are important," the words reverberated in the woman's mind.

It was difficult for her to focus on the race that she had set up, especially since she might have to deal with Team Flare, she didn't know much about them, but also felt that they were going to be trouble for her and for everyone, "great, Ash might have experience in dealing with villains," Serena reminded herself while thinking about hearing of some of Ash's experiences.

"Also if you sport a group of people wearing either white or black uniform with a red 'R' on it please be sure to let me know," the next lot of words echoed in Serena's mind, thinking about the warning the man gave the people in charge of the Battle Chateau.

Serena entered the cave with more concerns in her mind, this time she was not only concerned about Team Flare but also the mysterious organisation, "I might give Ash a call when I reach Ambrette Town," Serena told herself while taking her time, she looked around in hopes of finding more pokemon, but there were ones she wasn't too keen on, it was then an idea popped into her mind, "I think I will capture a Bagon," Serena thought to herself out loud, she quickly made it to the exit and looked around to see if she could find a small blue pokemon.

Continuing through the road on near the rocky cliffs overlooking a small town, Serena looked down at a museum to see three people with red hair wearing a red suit, they were walking towards the road heading to the rocky mountains, "great, I was hoping to get to the Glittering Caves without any problems," Serena complained, remembering the books she used to read about the fossil pokemon, especially one that captivated her, a pokemon with a long neck with sails protruding from it, "I was hoping that one day I would get an Amaura, but it seems like I need to deal with Team Flare," Serena stated while walking towards the end of the cliff face, it was then while walking she spotted a Bagon, it was green in color and had the same hard head crest.

Serena walked over to the pokemon careful not to startle it, 'I have never seen a green Bagon before,' Serena thought to herself, she picked one of her pokeballs and called out a flower like pokemon, "Flabébé, I choose you," Serena imitated Ash without realising, the fairy type pokemon readied itself to attack, but before it could attack the green Bagon charged towards it in anger with a powerful Headbutt, the shocked female trainer gasped at the sudden attack, "Flabébé!" Serena hollered as her pokemon hit the ground, after calling its name the small pokemon started to glow, it grew slightly bigger, after the glowing had stopped a new pokemon was hovering in place of Flabébé, "amazing my Flabébé, evolved into Floette," Serena declared with a smile as her pokemon attack the powerful dragon with a Fairy Wind.

The dragon leapt back to avoid the move and then launched itself with another powerful Headbutt, "Floette, dodge the attack then use Petal Blizzard," Serena instructed her pokemon quickly, the small pokemon barely dodged the attack, turned around and unleashed a violent wall of leaves towards the dragon type pokemon, the green dragon fell back after receiving a powerful blow, Serena's eyes glinted for a second, she threw her pokeball at the dragon, the ball hit the opposing pokemon and trapped it inside, it wobbled for a moment, but the green Bagon released itself from the device.

Serena glared at the target knowing that she needed to do more to capture the pokemon, "Floette, attack with Fairy Wind," Serena ordered her newly evolved pokemon, the small pokemon with the flower in hand unleashed another powerful wind, directed at the dragon, it slammed into it, pushing it to the ground, Serena wound up and threw her pokeball for another shot at what seemed like a rebellious dragon, the red and white device wobbled for a moment, it stopped, the wind picked up and Serena watched and waited her hair was moving around in the breeze, the pokeball started moving again, she started to cross her fingers in hope that the capture would be successful, suddenly the pokeball expelled a few stars and stopped moving entirely, Serena walked over to the pokeball and picked it, she looked at her pokemon and screamed out in joy, "yes I caught a Bagon!" Serena celebrated happily.

_(An hour later)_

Sitting in the pokemon Center Serena was on the phone talking to her mother boasting about her recent capture and evolution of her powerful pokemon, "wow Serena, you seem to be doing quite well, so how is your rival going?" Serena's mother asked with pride.

Thinking back for a moment, Serena pictured the night the two spent together, " he is a great person mom, we even went to Parfum Palace and watched fireworks," Serena professed to her mother with joy.

"So where is this rival of yours?" Serena's mother asked her daughter.

"He is heading towards Lumiose City mom, we are having a race towards Shalour City," Serena told her mother with great pride, "but before I head to face the next gym leader, I will be going to get myself an Amaura," Serena told her mother of her plans, 'I will get Ash a Tyrunt,' Serena thought as she started to turn a little red.

"Hey Serena why is your face turning red?" Grace asked her daughter with a cheeky smile.

Serena covered up her face to hide it from her mother, "no reason mother, I was just thinking about something a while ago," Serena tried to cover everything up.

"Yeah right, I can tell that there it has to do with your rival," Serena's mother pointed out with a smile.

After hearing her mother commenting about her rival, she remembered the moment Ash was talking to her about contests, "mom it's nothing, I have to go now," Serena replied as she hung up and walked towards the front counter to pick up her pokeballs. After walking towards the exit of the Pokemon Center, Serena's thoughts started to wonder again, 'what's going on? Every time I think of him, I cannot stop my heart from racing," Serena enquired, she walked slowly towards the southern exit of the town to start her journey towards the Glittering Cave.

It was then she spotted the man from the Battle Chateau who was cornering the Team Flare member, "I, Lysandre will not let you guys get away with your plans," the man decreed, it was quiet again, he whispered something incoherent, the man known as Lysandre raised his hand and lightly tapped the man on the neck, the member of Team Flare dropped to the ground while Serena was watching from a safe distance.

"A young lady, it seems like you have come to see the Glittering Caves, you need to be careful Team Flare is operating inside looking for fossils to make money," Lysandre stated with a smile, he walked towards the entrance way to get the police.

Serena walked pass the supposedly unconscious man, exiting the building she spotted a Rhyhorn ready to take trainers towards the Glittering Caves, Serena sighed after seeing the pokemon, she lowered her head in displeasure, "great, now I have to ride a Rhyhorn to get to the cave," Serena grumbled, memories of her mother's rigourous training regimen started to fill her mind, all those times she had her face covered in scratches after falling off, 'the amount of times I wanted to run away in order to not be a Rhyhorn racer,' Serena thought while her mother's words echoed in her mind, "be one with Rhyhorn, how I hated that training," Serena stated as she approached the quadruped pokemon nervously.

The blonde haired trainer climbed on the Rhyhorn and directed it towards the cave, the ground type moved slowly and walked gently on the land, 'this isn't part of the race, but I really want to get this pokemon,' Serena explained to herself.

The ground type lifted its front legs up and smashed the boulder in front of it, this movement brought back bad memories of her training with her mother, "not again, stay on the ground," Serena cried while holding onto the Rhyhorn with all her might, as words of advice from her mother echoed in her mind, 'easy for you to say mom,' Serena cringed in fear, she closed her eyes in hopes that the ground type would get back on the ground.

"We better prepare for Team Rocket's arrival, we already have enough troubles with two trainers," one of the flare grunts stated while hearing the screams of a young female, ignoring it the two Flare operatives walked into the cave, "we better hurry Master Lysandre can only keep up the façade for so long," the Flare grunt stated while walking further into the cave.

"You guys better hurry up, we need all the fossil pokemon to build our forces," a woman with short green hair wearing a red jacket with shirts and boots, her eyes were covered with a green visor, "I doubt we can hide our operations too long," she said while walking towards the exit of the cave. After exiting she spotted a female trainer with long blonde hair wearing a black blouse, a red dress, black stocking and shoes and a pink felt hat, "the one Lysandre is worried about," the woman reminded herself.

She called out a large flying type pokemon and leapt on, the large blue pokemon with red wings flew off towards the town and it was there she was supposed to report to her boss, she looked down to see the trainer getting closer to the cave, what she was doing at the cave was a mystery to her, but she couldn't be deterred from her mission, it was also during the flight that she looked towards the blue sea, "ah the Kanto organisation, Team Rocket are about to arrive," she said with a large smile gracing her lips.

Serena walked into the cave, after regaining her composure after riding the large pokemon, it was also then that she knew that she had to get a ride back towards the town to revive the fossils, she walked in the cave thankful her feet were on the ground, "after today I will never ride another Rhyhorn," Serena declared while walking around the colorful cave, the glowing crystals that shone in the cave, the different colors that illuminated the dark cave, mostly red, blue, purple and yellow with green thrown into the mix, the cries of pokemon echoed through the cave, but another mysterious sound reverberated through the cave, one that sounded like a machine. Wondering what it was Serena picked up the pace and rushed through the cave in hopes of trying to find out what was behind that grinding and smashing sound.

It was then that Serena started to hear voices over the machinery, but what they were saying was being muffled out by the loud machines, Serena walked up to one of the entrances to see a man talking to another man wearing red, Serena continued to watch not sure what to do, the danger she might be in for even being in the cave was on her mind, she turned around to try and get out of the cave but was spotted by one of the red clad people, they quickly approached her and surrounded her, she looked around trapped in the cave, she gulped and wondered what to do.

"So Team Rocket have sent a spy, well too bad for you, we need to eliminate you," the member for Team Flare stated while pulling out his pokeball.

"And she is such a pretty one too," the female member stated while calling out a black dog like pokemon.

Fennekin let itself out of the pokeball and started to growl at the team Flare member and her pokemon, "Bagon, let's battle." Serena called out her newly captured green dragon, as the pokemon leapt out of the pokeball a bunch of stars pulsed out from the dragon.

"Poocheyna let's show this girl what you can do," the man called out his dark type pokemon.

The dragon type glared at the female trainer and then looked away, Serena started to get concerned that her dragon type was a little rebellious, before she could recall her dragon it charged towards the opposing dark type dealing massive damage to it, "hey Bagon, I didn't say attack yet," Serena told her pokemon, but her words were ignored by the dragon, Serena turned her attention to Fennekin as it fought of the vicious attacks of Houndour, "Fennekin attack with Scratch," Serena ordered her pokemon as her new dragon charged towards the opposing dark type with its head lowered.

"Seems like your Bagon isn't obedient," the Flare grunt decreed with a smirk, "Poocheyna attack with bite," the Flare grunt ordered his pokemon with great confidence.

"Houndour, use Bite as well," the female Team Flare member called for her attack.

Serena was still too inexperienced to do anything, her fourth pokemon wasn't listening to her commands and she was surrounded, "what would Ash do in this situation?" Serena whispered to herself, she looked over to her Bagon and then turned her focus on Fennekin, Serena was having a hard time focusing on the battle between two experience members of Team Flare, fighting a battle on two fronts, "Bagon attack with Dragon Breath," Serena gave out another command, but after issuing the order Bagon used another move, this time using a weak fire type move on the opposing dark type pokemon, "no not Ember."

Serena eventually recalled her new dragon type wondering why it wouldn't listen to her, she pulled out her next pokeball and started to hesitate, "Skiddo, go," Serena called for her grass type pokemon, she nodded at her grass type pokemon, "use Take Down now," Serena called for the reckless attack, her Skiddo charged towards the dark type pokemon, tackling it harshly dealing significant damage and sending it flying towards the wall, "Fennekin attack with Scratch," Serena commanded her fire type.

"Houndour, attack with Bite again," the Flare grunt issued her instructions to the dark type pokemon, the two fire type's charged towards one another not backing away, the fire fox determined to give Serena a victory started to glow a pure white, "what's going on?" the Flare grunt asked in disbelief.

Serena stared for a moment, for the second time in the day another of her pokemon was evolving in battle, "my Fennekin is evolving," Serena said in amazement, after the glowing had vanished, a small fox like pokemon standing on its two back legs quickly charged towards with its paws extended out, it scratched down on the dark type knocking it towards the Team Flare member.

The opposing flare members recalled their pokemon, shocked that Serena had emerged victorious against them, "it doesn't matter, we have all the fossil specimens we need, time to get out of here," the Flare grunts stated while running off with a bag of fossils .

Serena watched this and started to feel depressed, silence filled the cave, it was almost haunting, she had won the battle, but lost the war, her first experience facing Team Flare was something she would rather forget, she walked to the back of the cave to find two more fossils that had been forgotten, Serena walked towards the two fossils and started to think about what her journey meant, she walked with her pokemon to look at them, "they are the last two here, why did Team Flare leave them here?" Serena asked, she looked over to her newly evolved Braixen and her Skiddo, she picked them up and started to think about how Ash was going, she recalled her two pokemon and walked out of the cave alone.

_(2 hours later)_

Serena was sitting in the museum waiting for her Sail fossil to emerge as an Amaura, she was looking at her pokeball thinking about how to help Bagon become an obedient pokemon, she had made quick time to Ambrette Town, catching a disobedient Bagon and barely managing to fight off Team Flare, "Bagon, I will train you still, but how do I make you a reliable partner?" Serena asked herself, she placed her Bagon's pokeball back onto her belt.

A man approached her with a pokeball in hand, "here, your Sail Fossil has now come back to life," the man stated with a smile, Serena politely took the pokeball and smiled at the man, "would you like me to bring the pokemon from the Jaw fossil back to life?" the gentleman asked calmly.

Serena shook her head and placed the fossil back into her backpack, "no thanks, I am saving that for someone else," Serena replied, she walked slowly towards the buildings exit with thoughts of how to get stronger playing in her mind, "thanks for reviving my Amuara," Serena said thankfully before exiting the building.

Meanwhile from a distance away, a group of people wearing white were watching from over the cliff, seeing Serena exiting the small town, but their main focus was the people wearing red, "Giovanni, Team Flare is acting up as you expected, we have made a small landing party ready to spy on Team Flare, we have even send a person into infiltrate Team Flare," a man with short blue hair explained with a confident smirk, he placed his binoculars over his eyes to see into the distance, "this region is quite vast," he said with a smile.

"Well James, it would be best if we continue to explore this region," a woman with long red hair stated with a smile.

"Yes Jessie, men spread out, find as much information about this region as possible, report your findings to the boss," James instructed the rest of Team Rocket, "we better keep an eye on Team Flare as well," James stated while getting up.

"That's right Jimmy, we have a lot to do, right now our mission is to capture an army of powerful pokemon," said a talking cat like pokemon, the three members of Team Rocket leapt off into one direction to start their mission.

Serena walked towards the beach to continue her journey, now with five pokemon in her team, hearing the waves crashing, she turned towards the sea and looked out towards the distance, the sea breeze picked up lifting her hair up then dropping it back down, she closed her eyes, placed her bag on the right side and fell onto the sand, the sound of the beach was soothing and it seemed to have cleared her mind of doubts, but there was one doubt that filled her mind, how to get her Bagon to listen to her. Serena pictured the battle with her Bagon in her mind, replaying every detail of its rebellious tendancy.

"Being a trainer is tough," Serena admitted with a frown, "I wonder if Ash had that same problem, most likely not," Serena questioned herself as she pulled the pokeball and looked at it for a moment, thinking back to the battle against Team Flare, she started to question herself as a trainer, she stayed on the sand to think about what her journey has to offer her.

* * *

**I hope you like that chapter, The Team Flare and Team Rocket Story is starting to build up, and now Serena is questioning herself due to her Bagon, next up will be a chapter focusing on Ash. **

_**Teams so far **_

_**Serena: **__Braixin, Amuara, Skiddo, Floette and Bagon*_

_**Ash: **__Pikachu, Pancham and Gible_

**Next time chapter 5: Power Problems.**

_Here is a question, what would you the readers like to see in the coming chapters, so when you review please leave a request and I will follow through with it._


	5. Power Problems

**Chapter 5: Power Problems.**

_Time to start Ash leg of the journey, and his part of the race towards Shalour City, this should take another two chapters with the next one being Ash and Serena's respective Gym Battles._

* * *

For the third time Ash walked into the busy streets of Lumiose City, the sound of cars driving through the streets and the people talking to one another, Ash walked slowly until he was approached by a scientist, the older woman stopped for a moment and started to catch her breath, "Professor Sycamore wants you at his lab as soon as possible," the woman instructed Ash, she left to get back to the lab, ready to start her research again, leaving Ash to decided what he was going to do.

Ash turned his attention to his partner pokemon and wondered why the professor would request his presence, "okay, so Professor Sycamore, want me at his lab," Ash thought out loud, he walked towards the lab, seeing the many pokemon that resided in the region, still unable to hide his excitement about this region, "when we first got here, I thought this journey was going to be really interesting," Ash commented while walking slowly, he noticed the people sitting at the front of cafes and walking out of the cinemas, "you know buddy I wouldn't mind living in this region," Ash professed to his partner pokemon, shocked at hearing this Pikachu fell of his trainer's right shoulder and hit the ground.

Ash knelt down to see what his partner pokemon was thinking, Pikachu placed his paw on the his trainer's head and nodded, "hey buddy I am not sick, I was just saying that this region is really nice," Ash commented, he got back to his feet and started moving towards the Professor's lab.

In the air a balloon shaped like a Meowth Head was hovering above the city skyline, "so our old nemesis is here to," James stated while looking out of his binoculars, he continued to scan the massive city and started to think about what the implications of the mission was.

"So the twerp, seems to be on another journey, but it looks like he will be doing it on his own," Meowth commented while looking at the yellow mouse pokemon, we can go after Pikachu as well," Meowth suggested with a broad smile, he placed his right paw over his chin and started to rub it in thought.

"No Meowth, our mission isn't to capture Pikachu, we need to find out more about Team Flare and to build a powerful army of pokemon," Jessie informed the cat scratch pokemon, she pulled out her binoculars and spotted five people in red suits, "seems like we found our targets," Jessie commented while keeping the targets firmly insight.

Ash looked up to the bright blue sky to see the meowth balloon, "oh great, it seems like Team Rocket are here as well," Ash commented while shaking his head, he sighed remembering the days he was being chased by the rocket trio, "to be honest I miss the old days when Team Rocket chased us," Ash chuckled while approaching the lab.

Ash entered the lab to find a waiting professor with a four pokeballs in hand, "ah Ash, I was kind of hoping you would show up, there is a problem in the bad lands that I require you to investigate, also I want you to have a pokemon from this lab as well as deliver this Torchic to Serena when you see her next," Sycamore requested the trainer happily, "I want you to choose one of these three pokemon Ash," Sycamore told the trainer before he could protest to the idea.

"But Professor, what of the starting trainers?" Ash asked in slight protest.

"I might be a little stubborn Ash, but I want to have one of the pokemon," Sycamore requested calmly, he called out a blue frog with bubbles around his neck, a small orange yellow fox with orange fur coming from its ears and a small brown pokemon with a green hood, "please choose one Ash I insist," the professor requested, "the one in the middle is Fennekin, but you know that one already because of Serena right, the one on the right is Froakie and the one on the left is Chespin," Sycamore explained while pointing his fingers towards the three pokemon each.

Ash sighed and looked away wondering what to do next, "alright, I will choose one of them, Froakie will be my choice," Ash finally submitted with a frown, but it was something he was trying to avoid doing knowing that there were trainers that wanted those pokemon, "so professor what other reason did you call for me?" Ash asked the Kalos professor.

"Ash, have you heard of Mega Evolution? It is something that I am researching, it is a process that releases the full potential of pokemon, but there only seems to be a few of them around," the professor explained the research to Ash, he gave Ash the Torchic, "I asked Serena about it before she left on her journey but she didn't give me a clear answer, so I need you to deliver this pokemon to her," Professor Sycamore requested while turning towards his lab, "there is something else Ash, I need you to investigate the power plant, I heard rumours that there is a mysterious organisation causing havoc, I will tell the law enforcement to let you by," Professor Sycamore instructed Ash, he walked back into his lab with the other two starter pokemon following behind him.

Ash looked at the frog like pokemon and recalled him, "well buddy it seems like we have another partner pokemon, but the Professor was concerned about something in the Bad Lands," Ash stated with concern, he started to wonder what was going on, he walked up to the phone to see if he could get a hold of Serena, he pressed the number of the Cyllage City pokemon center to see if she was there, "oh Nurse Joy I take it my friend isn't there," Ash commented with a frown.

"Your friend, do you want me to give her a message when your friend gets here?" Nurse Joy asked with a warm tone.

"Yes please, can you tell Serena to ring me up and Courmarine City Pokemon Center," Ash gave the message to the nurse, "oh and if you're wondering what she looks like, she wears a black blouse, with a red dress, black stockings and shoes, she also has long blonde hair with a pink felt hat," Ash described the young woman to the nurse.

"Alright I will make sure she gets your message," the Nurse replied before hanging up.

Ash rushed towards the northern half of the city to find out what was going on, he walked up to the police man and showed him some identification, "ah the professor told me you would need to get by, please be careful, once you exit the city, you won't be able to re-enter from that road," the police officer stated with a smile, he escorted Ash towards the exit while another police officer took his post, "yeah the power failure has caused half the city to come to a standstill," the officer said while pointing to a hotel which was one of the biggest places of tourism in the city, the Cafes were closed due to no power.

"I see, so you require my assistance for this, do you know who did this?" Ash questioned the officer, the man dressed in blue nodded and led him towards the exit, "tell the professor not to worry, I will sort this out," Ash promised with his fist clenched, he left the officer to his duties and ran off, he looked up to see the Meowth shaped balloon following him, "things are about to get really interesting, first Team Flare and now it seems like Team Rocket are in this region," Ash told himself with a sense of adventure.

"Great now he knows we are here," Meowth complained with anger.

James was at the other end of the basket scanning the city for more activity in the large city, "Meowth no need to panic, he is unaware of our mission, or is it maybe he misses the old days?" James thought with a smirk, he returned his attention to the city with his binoculars.

"Yeah I agree with James, we need to focus on our mission right now, Team Flare is our sole concern, we want to make sure the boss is ready to rule the world," Jessie agreed with James and sent the balloon towards the Bad Lands, it was then they received a call from their boss, James stopped scanning the city and turned his focus on the incoming call.

Meowth pressed the button and the boss appeared in a holographic image, "Yes sir," the three saluted while waiting for the image.

"There are three legendary pokemon in the Kalos region, I need you to investigate them, they are called Xerneas, Yveltal and Zygarde," Giovanni ordered his admins with confidence, he showed them the silhouettes of the three pokemon and grabbed a cup of tea to sip, "I will be there in a month to see how things are going, so make sure you and the rest of our operatives are doing their missions, I will send Pierce and Dr. Zager to help out in the mission as well," Giovanni explained the plans to his best three members, he ended the transmission and the rocket trio saluted promptly.

"So we need to get things moving, let's head out," James commanded while sending the balloon closer to the Route thirteen at a greater speed.

Meanwhile Ash walked towards the exit of the major city, he walked through the tunnel where there were only but a few people, it felt warmer due to the desert winds that were billowing through the tunnel, "so we need to find out about Team Flare and their activities, while having this race with Serena, I bet she is a mile ahead of me now," Ash complained with a saddened expression, he walked into the desert to see nothing but only a few people, dead trees and ground type pokemon moving through the ground.

Ash covered his eyes to prevent the sand from hitting them, he was having a hard time moving through due to the strength of the powerful winds, but he was determined to figure out what was going on, slowly but surely he made it to an area where he could get a better look at the surrounding area, the trainer lifted his head and spotted five imposing buildings, "imagine building those in a place that has this terrible wind," Ash complained while spotting a man wearing a red suit, "and with those idiots around, this will surely be troublesome," Ash told his partner pokemon.

The raven haired trainer glanced over his shoulder to see three more members from Team Flare approaching the facility, "so when we get more power we can change the world so that only members of Team Flare can live in it," one of the Flare grunts stated with a proud expression.

Ash with a look of disbelief, "they intend to destroy the world, we I guess taking over the world like Team Rocket isn't original enough for them," Ash sighed while thinking back to the days he was being chased by Team Rocket, "at least Team Rocket were more interesting," Ash whispered to himself, he started to laugh to himself while his partner pokemon watched his trainer recollecting the early days of their journeys.

Ash quietly followed the members of Team Flare, he made sure he remained quiet, hiding behind large rocks and keeping his distance, it was then he spotted two items one was a mysterious card while the other was a small stone with red, blue and yellow in color, Ash curiously picked up the items, he stared at the stone for a moment and wondered what it was, he suddenly looked back to see that the three members of Team Flare were gone leaving the fourth member to guard the bridge, the wind picked up again raising dust preventing Ash to see what was a head of him for some distance.

Ash approached the Flare grunt and pulled out his pokeball, "so we meet again, it seems like you are here to cause trouble," the Flare member stated while calling out a dark type pokemon shaped like a small dog.

"Gible I choose you," Ash called for his small dragon type pokemon.

"Battling me with such a pitiful dragon?" the person in red asked the trainer, he scoffed at his pokemon causing the experienced trainer to get angry at him.

Ash clenched his fists in anger and his dragon started to change in personality, from a clumsy and oblivious pokemon to a more uncompromising pokemon, "you want to insult my Gilbe, I will make you pay for that," Ash replied to the Team Flare member while glaring at him, "Gible attack with Dragon Claw," Ash instructed his pokemon immediately.

"Poocheyna attack with Bite," the opposing trainer ordered his pokemon.

The two pokemon charged towards one another, Gible moved fast and slashed down on the dark type pokemon, Gible roared out loud before starting to glow, he grew taller and grew fins from his longer arms, after the glowing stopped the pokemon extended out his longer arms and roared ready to face the foe, "about time, alright Gabite attack with Dragon Claw," Ash instructed his newly evolved Gabite.

The flare grunt watched as his pokemon was hit by another Dragon Claw, "no, this isn't good," the person in red stated while recalling his fallen pokemon.

"What's the matter, you angered me and my pokemon, underestimated my Gabite and you lost easily might I add," Ash explained with a smirk.

Ash recalled his dragon and rushed pass the frustrated member of Team Flare, he approached the entrance way and put the card inside the card slot, the door opened to present a factory that gave power to most of the Kalos region, he entered and spotted members from Team Flare, "now we have the power we need to bring this region to its knees," a female Flare member pointed out, Ash walked towards the wall to see a woman with purple hair wearing mostly red with black stockings and a visor with a purple light, "when everything is done here report to the Team Flare Café in Lumiose City," she instructed the admin standing next to her.

The man dressed in white with no hair nodded and allowed for the Team Flare scientist to leave, Ash quickly hit around the corner and watched as the woman left the scene, it was then he noticed two members of Team Flare approaching me, 'I might not have any sense of fashion, but damn Serena knows how to dress up better than these clowns,' Ash thought while he started to laugh at the people in red.

"It seems like our mission is almost complete, our comrades are working new Cyllage City and making preperations in Shalour City to find out more about Mega Evolution," the male flare grunt told his allies calmly, he spotted Ash and approached the trainer, the three members held out their pokeballs and got ready to battle Ash, "you fool, coming alone just to stop us," the angered member of Flare commented while calling out his fire dark type pokemon.

"A Houndoom, what else do you have?" Ash smugly, he pulled out his pokeball and signalled to his Pikachu. The two other members called out their pokemon ready to face Ash in battle, "oh goody a Mighteyna and a, what is that?" Ash asked the Team Flare member while remembering a word of advice from his rival, "oh right my pokedex," Ash said while hitting his head, he scanned the large lion like pokemon, with a large red and yellow mane, "a Pyroar, interesting, might catch one of those pokemon someday," Ash told himself while his Pikachu was readying for battle, "Gabite and Froakie, I choose you," Ash called for his two pokemon.

"You battled our teammate outside right?" the female flare grunt asked with a smile.

"It doesn't matter we are stronger than him by far," the other member for Flare stated with a smirk.

Ash started laughing at the Team Flare people, "yeah okay, coming from people who dress in red suits, my friend and rival dresses better than you," Ash replied much the chagrin of the flare members, "I mean I was to dress like you, I would be saying, hey look at me I stick out like a sore thumb," Ash joked while the members of Team Flare grew angry at the trainer's words.

"How dare you, these suits are highly fashionable," the man in the middle stated while clenching his fists, he nodded at his Houndoom and got ready to start the battle, "Houndoom attack with Flamethrower," he issued the first command of the battle.

"Mightyena attack with Crunch," the second flare member issued her command.

"Pyroar attack with Flamethrower," the last member issued his ordered.

The two fire types unleashed their attacks and Mighteyna charged towards Froakie with his fangs glowing.

"Gabite, counter with Stone Edge, Pikachu, strike back with Thunderbolt and Froakie attack with Water Pulse," Ash commanded his three pokemon simultaneously, Pikachu charged up and unleashed a vicious electric attack on the lion like pokemon while a ball of water formed in the hands of the water frog, at that time Gabite sent a barrage of stones towards the opposing pokemon, the two fire types were hit by the powerful attacks dealing significant damage, 'not bad, Froakie has a lot of potential, I wonder what else he can do,' Ash thought while looking over to his newly acquired pokemon.

The attacks from Ash's team landed pushing the three pokemon back towards their trainers, "whao he is good," the flare grunts stated while their pokemon got back up, "Mightyena, retaliate with Shadow Ball."

"Pyroar, use Hyper Voice," the member for Team Flare on the right called for the next attack.

"Houndoom attack with Crunch," the middle member ordered his pokemon angrily.

"Alright, Pikachu attack with Volt Tackle, Gabite, you take Pyroar with Stone Edge and Froakie, hit Mightyena with Bubble Beam," Ash issued his commanded quickly.

Pikachu charged towards Houndoom with a thunderous aura with his teammates preparing their attacks, Gabite sent another barrage of stones this time directed at Pyroar and Froakie leapt into the air sending a burst of bubbles towards the other dark type pokemon, the six pokemon landed their attacks causing a powerful shockwave, the three members of Team Flare watched in shock as their pokemon fell in battle.

"No way, he is good," the leading member stated in shock, he recalled his pokemon followed by the other members.

Ash recalled his two pokemon and allowed Pikachu back on his shoulder, "alright tell me, what do you seek?" Ash asked the three red clad members of team Flare, but as he was about to get an answer powerful blades of air pushed him back towards the wall, "it's you, who are you?" Ash asked the purple haired woman.

She started to laugh smugly while her bat like pokemon with four wings hovered next to her, "I am a Team Flare scientist Celosia," the woman replied while she clicked her fingers to call her pokemon to attack the trainer, "what are you three waiting for? Make sure the plans are complete," the Team Flare scientist told the grunts with anger.

"A sneak attack, well I guess you knew I was here all along right?" Ash asked the scientist, he got up and smiled at the Team Flare scientist, she nodded and her pokemon unleashed another lot of air blades towards Ash, "Air Slash," Ash commented wisely knowing the attack, "Pikachu, let's go attack with Thunderbolt," Ash issued his command, Pikachu unleashed a devastating blast of electricity towards Crobat.

"Double Team now," Celosia called for the defensive manoeuvrer.

Ash gritted his teeth as the bat like pokemon started to split into five more images of itself, Pikachu was surrounded by the six images before it unleashed a powerful Air Slash on Pikachu, "just because you have the speed advantage, it doesn't mean you will win, Pikachu, send a Thunderbolt in all directions," Ash ordered his pokemon to attack.

Pikachu leapt into the air and sent out yet another blast of electricity towards the double team images, they all disappeared but Pikachu was slammed with a powerful set of wings, "Cross Poison, such a nice move," Celosia stated while Pikachu fell to the ground now leaving him poisoned.

Ash rushed over to his pokemon in shock, "Pikachu are you alright buddy?" Ash asked while picking his pokemon up, he looked up to see Crobat charging towards him, Pikachu looked up and powered up another electric attack, he leapt out of Ash's arms and blasted the poison type with an unmerciful attack, "Pikachu!" Ash yelled out in horror, his started pokemon landed on the ground in front of him panting heavily before collapsing to the ground, Ash walked up to him and smiled, "that will do Pikachu," Ash commented calmly as he picked up the electric mouse pokemon.

"We have what we need from here Team Flare pull out," Celosia instructed the rest of Team Flare, she walked pass the trainer who was cradling the poisoned pokemon, "maybe next time you will think twice before messing with us," she stated before leaving Ash alone.

Ash walked towards the main operator of the Power Plant, he couldn't stop them from achieving their mission, "good, we can now give power back to the rest of the region," the person said with a much calmer disposition.

Ash got up and glared at Team Flare, "for idiots with no fashion sense like me, they sure are strong," Ash hissed in frustration, he walked out of the building to get to the next city, with Pikachu in his arms, he continued towards Courmarine City, "you know Pikachu, we finally made it pass Lumiose, I was getting a little tired of seeing that city," Ash commented with a laugh, he looked down towards his injured partner, 'we were ambushed, but that will not happen again,' Ash thought while looking back towards the power plant.

Ash made it to the tunnel and walked into the city on his own, he looked around for a moment and spotted the red roofed building, it wasn't too far away, but knew that Pikachu needed assistance from the Nurse of the city, "I wonder if Serena is in Cyllage City yet?" Ash wondered wile entering the building, he walked over to the main counter and gave his partner pokemon to Nurse Joy.

Ash walked over to the back window to see the rest of the city, the hotel in the background, the hotel with the sea as the backdrop, the harbour with many stalls and people buying from it, "this region is amazing, I can't believe that there is such a relaxing view here," Ash commented to himself while walking back inside.

Nurse Joy approached the trainer with a smile, "your pokemon will be fine, but someone gave you a message to ring them at Cyllage City Pokemon Center about an hour ago," the pink haired nurse.

Ash rushed to the phone with great excitement and pressed in the numbers, "Ash, I got your message, to bad I got to Cyllage City before you got to Courmarine City," Serena told Ash with a cheeky smile.

"Serena I need to give you a message from Professor Sycamore," Ash replied quietly.

"Yeah I know, help him research Mega Evolution," Serena retorted with a less than excited expression, "say Ash, did you ever have a pokemon that disobeyed you?" Serena asked Ash with a saddened tone.

Ash nodded and remembered back when he had problems with his Charizard, "yeah I had problems with a particular pokemon, he was strong but gained the personality traits from his former trainer," Ash described the situation to Serena, while remembering the battle he had with Tad and his Poliwrath, "also when I started out Pikachu refused to listen to me," Ash professed with a nervous smile.

"Wow, so you have had the same problem before?" Serena asked Ash with a sigh, after listening to Ash she looked at her pokeball containing the dragon, "so your Pikachu and this other pokemon didn't listen to you," Serena asked the rival trainer with a frown.

"That's right my Pikachu and Charizard at one stage didn't like me," Ash commented with a smirk, "So what's going on Serena?" Ash asked his rival with a smile.

"I just caught this Bagon yesterday and it refuses to even listen to me, I almost got beaten by Team Flare because Bagon wouldn't listen to me," Serena explained her problem to Ash.

"You had a run in with Team Flare as well?" Ash asked his friend with a sigh, "I was sent to investigate the Power Plant and was ambushed by a scientist with purple hair and a Crobat," Ash explained the situation to Serena.

"I managed to save two items, a Jaw Fossil and a Sail Fossil, I revived the Sail Fossil to become a Amuara, I want to give you the Jaw Fossil Ash," Serena told Ash while showing him the ancient rock.

"Wow, thanks Serena, there is also something I want to give you, well Professor Sycamore told me to give it to you, are you near a pokeball teleporter?" Ash asked the blonde haired trainer, she nodded and pointed over to it, "good, will send this Torchic over to you," Ash told Serena, he pressed the button and the red and white device disappeared from his side.

Ash watched Serena pick up the pokeball and wave it in front of him, "thanks Ash, and I will give you the fossil when we get to Shalour City," Serena told Ash with a smile.

"Serena, do you know what happened to my pokemon? He became one of my most loyal pokemon, I saved his life after taking an Ice Beam," Ash explained the moment Charizard became his most trusted pokemon, 'then there are those Flamethrowers,' Ash thought with a proud smile, "don't give up on Bagon Serena, I know you can gain its trust," Ash told Serena with a confident smile, trying to cheer up his rival.

Serena sat on the spot, surprised at hearing words of praise from Ash, they echoed for some time in her mind, lost for words it was like she was hearing what she always wanted to hear, even Ash trying to talk to her wasn't getting her to say something, "thanks Ash, I will do my best to get Bagon to listen to me," Serena replied softly, she got ready to end the call, "I will see you in Shalour City after I win the race," Serena told Ash before hanging up.

Ash sat on the seat and wondered what was going on, "Serena is acting a little strange, I mean I praise her, wish her luck, then she freezes, what is that about?" Ash asked himself in a puzzled manner. Ash got out of the seat and slowly walked over to the Nurse, she handed him his pokemon and a healthier Pikachu, "thanks Nurse Joy," Ash thankfully acknowledged the pokemon doctor.

"No problem Ash," Nurse Joy replied with a bow of the head.

Ash walked towards one of the rooms to stay for the night, "glad you're back to full health buddy," Ash told his partner pokemon in a relieved manner, "you know Pikachu, I was talking to Serena earlier, I wished her luck with a pokemon who was disobeying her, and she froze for a moment," Ash commented while trying to figure out what was going on, he walked down the hall thinking about the phone call and wondering what gift Serena had for had for him, what Team Flare was up to and how much of a threat they were to the rest of the world, all this compiled over the fact that Team Rocket was lurking around the corner. Ash pulled out the strange stone from his pocket and stared at it for a moment, "this is one odd stone, I wonder what it is for?" Ash asked himself while putting it back into his pocket, he walked down the hall and into his room to rest for the night, "alright I will get dinner, then tomorrow, I will challenge the gym leader," Ash told his partner pokemon confidently as he placed his bag at the end of the bed.

* * *

**Next chapter will be the gym battles between Ash and Ramos followed by Serena and Grant. How will they go? And will Serena find a way to get her shiny Bagon to listen to her?**

**Next time chapter 6: towards ones ambitions.**

_After this chapter the next chapter the race will end, but that isn't the only thing Ash and Serena will compete in Shalour City will host the Mega Tournament, a tag tournament with the prize being to the victorious duo a Mega Ring each. What other teams would you like to see? Ash and Serena are going to be one of the teams._

_Please leave a review on the teams you would want to see, previous traveling companions and rivals are included._

_To make sure everyone can enjoy the story, I would like to see what you guys suggest, I am making Flare a threat instead of easy beats, it would be more interesting to the story._


	6. Towards ones future

**Chapter 6: Towards ones future.**

_Well it seems like we have an official name for Ash and Serena, it seems like the pairing name with be AmourShipping._

* * *

After a good night's sleep Ash walked into the main foyer ready to face the new day's challenge, yawning and stretching his arms while walking through the main foyer, only two things seem to have crossed his mind the gym leader of the city and wining the badge and the fact that he had a race against Serena, he grabbed some breakfast and sat down to think about the upcoming battle against the cites gym leader, "I hope the gym leader gives me a three on three battle today," Ash said with a nervous tone.

Ash continued towards the gym while figuring out what pokemon to use, while the same time wondering what pokemon were going to be used against him, "you know buddy, after we win this badge, we must complete this little race," Ash commented with pride.

Ash continued walked into a building and spotted a man swinging from one vine to another, "yes this is great," the elderly man said while Ash stood in shock at what he had seen.

Ash stood in awe at the elderly man swinging from left to right, "Pikachu, did you just see that?" Ash asked his partner pokemon who was in equal shock, he nodded with his mouth open, 'great looks like I have to face someone with the same habit as Iris,' Ash thought as he walked towards the center of the gym.

"Come on Weepinbell you have to do better than that," the elderly man commented while being followed by a yellow pokemon.

Ash stood in the middle of the gym and placed his hands around his mouth, "excuse me, I would like to have a gym battle," Ash requested, he waited for the gym leader to climb down from the vine, "I can't believe I am having to deal with this, I wonder if Serena is having better luck than me," Ash whispered while being approached by a diminutive man with a green jacket and beret, blue pants and a walking cane shaped like scissors.

The man approached Ash while placing his left hand behind his back, "so whippersnapper, you want to challenge me to a battle?" the elderly man asked the young trainer while walking around the young trainer.

"Yes sir, I seek your gym badge," Ash replied with a nervous tone.

"You seem like a strong trainer, how does three on three sound to you?" the gym leader asked the trainer calmly.

Ash nodded in approval while watched in the old man walk slowly towards the gym leader's side of the building, "um sir, would it be alright if I help you out?" Ash asked quietly.

The old gym leader looked back and smiled, "I have never asked for help, I may be old, but I will not have some young'un help me out," the man replied with a smile, "now young man, who may you be?" the gym leader asked quietly.

"My name is Ash Ketchum sire, from Pallet Town," Ash answered in a respectful manner.

"The Kanto region, you have travelled a distance young Ash, my name is Ramos," the elderly gym leader remarked as he introduced himself to the challenger, "well young man, are you going to battle me? Or are we going to wait for the next day?" the man known as Ramos questioned the trainer about the battle.

Ash rushed to his side of the battlefield, readied himself for battle against the senior trainer, "Alright, Pancham I choose you," Ash called for his first pokemon to battle the gym leader.

"Gogoat, let's go," the old man called out his first pokemon to battle Ash,

"Alright, I guess I will be seeing what these pokemon are like in battle," Ash stated while his pokemon got ready to face the larger pokemon, "let's start things off with Comet Punch," Ash instructed his fighting type pokemon.

"Use Leech Seed," the experienced gym leader replied to Ash's command, the much larger pokemon ran towards the grass type pokemon.

"Dodge Leech Seed," Ash quickly called for his pokemon to evade the attack, the small pokemon ran towards the corner of the battlefield trapped as the grass type approached it, 'great this is becoming a problem,' Ash thought while the elderly gym leader readied for another attack on the small fighting type pokemon.

"Gogoat, attack with Horn Leech," Ramos instructed his pokemon.

"Dig now," Ash quickly ordered his pokemon, the small pokemon dug it's way underground as the larger pokemon charged towards it with glowing green horns, "now come out from the other side and use Comet Punch," Ash ordered his pokemon, the smaller pokemon jumped out of the ground and landed multiple hits on the mount pokemon.

"Counter with Vine Whip," Ramos ordered his pokemon quickly, two vines appeared from the bush around the grass type's neck.

"Get back underground," Ash called to his pokemon, the playful pokemon jumped back into the ground and emerged from the other hole, "now Pancham, attack with Brick Break," Ash ordered the arms of the fighting type started glowing, but as the attack was about to land the vine latched onto the fighting type, pulling back into the ground and back out from the other side, the vines slammed Pancham in the middle of the battlefield, "great, Pancham is getting seriously beaten here," Ash stated while his pokemon got back up slowly, "Pancham, I am recalling you for now," Ash told his fighting type pokemon, he called back his pokemon and got ready to call for his next pokemon, "Gabite, I choose you," Ash called for his dragon pokemon.

"Ah a Gabite interesting, Gogoat attack with Take Down," Ramos instructed his pokemon calmly.

"Gabite, dodge the attack, the strike back with Dragon Claw," Ash ordered his dragon type pokemon, Gabite dodged the attacking pokemon and then charged from the left, his claws glowing ready to slash down.

"Gogoat watch out," the elderly gym leader called to his pokemon but it was too late the dragon slashed down on the grass type with all his might sending the grass type flying towards the other side of the battlefield, "unbelievable, he defeated Gogoat," Ramos whispered to himself while recalling his fallen pokemon., "Not bad young man, let's see how you handle this one, Weepinbell, let's go," the experienced gym leader called for a mostly yellow pokemon.

"A familiar pokemon from the Kanto region," Ash said with a look of nostalgia.

"You said the Kanto Region, where are you from young man?" Ramos asked the challenger with a smile.

"From Pallet Town in the Kanto Region," Ash replied promptly, "my starter pokemon was Pikachu and the Gabite you are facing now is from the Sinnoh Region," Ash commented with great pride.

"Ah so young man, you have seen the wonders of the world no doubt," Ramos said with great interest in the trainer's journey, "alright let's back to our battle, Weepinbell attack with Magical Leaf," Ramos commanded his pokemon as the battle recommenced.

"Can't dodge that attack," Ash hissed while the grass type prepared to attack, 'if I let it eh leaves follow my Gabite and send the attacks right back to Weepinbell,' Ash thought while the grass type unleashed a powerful barrage of leave, "Gabite all the leaves to follow you," Ash commanded his pokemon, the dragon nodded and leapt into the air and allowed the leaves to follow him, "that's it keep going Gabite," Ash encouraged his dragon type pokemon.

'amazing he is allowing his dragon to be followed by the attack,' Ramos thought while eventually seeing what was going to happen, "Weepinbell attack with Razor Leaf," the elderly gym leader ordered his pokemon, Weepingbell sent a barrage of razor sharp leaves towards the dragon type pokemon.

"Slice them up with Dragon Claw," Ash countered quickly. The cave pokemon started slicing the incoming leaves with his attack while being chased by the Magical Leaf attack, "now jump up," Ash instructed his pokemon quickly, in the last second before Ramos could call out his next attack Gabite leapt into the air causing the grass type move to smash into the original attack.

"Amazing, he lead the attack back to my Weepinbell," Ramos praised the trainer.

After the attack landed Weepinbell was still willing to battle, but was panting after the attack, "finish this off with Shadow Claw," Ash instructed his pokemon calmly, with a ghostly claw the dragon made one final hit on the grass type pokemon knocking it out of the battle.

"Well, well, this is unheard of, this is the first time I am down to my last pokemon without knocking out a single pokemon of my opponents," the timed trainer stated with pride. He recalled his grass type pokemon and got ready to call his last pokemon to battle, "Jumpluff, time to battle," Ramos called for his final pokemon small blue pokemon appeared with three white puffs, one on each arm and the last on top of its head.

"Another familiar pokemon, time to end this quickly, Gabite attack Dragon Claw," Ash ordered confidently. His dragon rushed towards the gym leaders pokemon but the gym leader remained calm.

"Grass Knot," Ramos ordered his pokemon, as the dragon got closer a small bit of vine appeared from underground tripping the dragon up, "now finish this dragon off with Energy Ball," Ramos ordered his grass type pokemon, a ball of colorful energy formed in front of the pokemon, firing it at the cave pokemon.

"Get up now Gabite," Ash panicked, his dragon got up but was immediately sent flying by the force of a powerful energy ball, his pokemon now knocked out of the battle, 'thanks Gabite, sorry for rushing into this," Ash apologised to his pokemon with a gentle smile, he pulled out his Pancham's pokeball and called him out.

"It still seems like your Pancham is exhausted, time to end this quickly," Ramos stated while his pokemon got ready to attack, "attack with Aerial Ace," the experienced gym leader ordered his pokemon calmly.

"Dig underground," Ash commanded to defend his pokemon, Ash waited for the chance to attack.

"Don't think I will fall for that again, Jumpluff fire an energy into the hole," Ramos commanded his pokemon with great confidence.

"No Pancham!" Ash yelled out as the attack caused a powerful explosion underground, as the dust settle, Pancham was resting on the ground unable to battle, "this is great, this guy is strong," Ash whispered to himself while recalling his pokemon, Ash looked over to his partner pokemon and nodded, "well buddy this is your time to battle," Ash allowed his partner pokemon into the battle.

"Oh, this will be an interesting battle, but I will not be holding anything back," Ramos declared, "use Energy ball again," Ramos told his pokemon quickly.

"Slice the attack with Iron Tail," Ash instructed his pokemon, the electric mouse waited for the attack to arrive, his tail primed for the counter, as the attack got closer Pikachu spun around using his tail to cut through the opponents attack one half of the attack was sent to the left as the other half took to the other side, the explosion raised dirt into the air, "now counter with Volt Tackle," Ash instructed his electric mouse pokemon.

"Use Grass Knot," Ramos instructed his pokemon.

"Evade it while maintaining your Volt Tackle," Ash ordered his starter pokemon, with great precision the electric mouse pokemon easily evaded the attacks while maintaining his head on charge towards the blue pokemon.

"He isn't afraid, courage he has that in spades, but I will not be making it easy, Jumpluff attack with Solar Beam," the elderly gym leader commanded his pokemon.

"Keep going buddy," Ash encouraged his pokemon calmly, he waited for the final charge, it was then the powerful grass type move was fired at the electric type pokemon, "jump into the air, then use Volt Tackle to dive down on Jumpluff," Ash instructed his pokemon, the beam was being fired at the ground Pikachu leapt into the air and with great accuracy dived towards the grass type pokemon.

"Jumpluff, get out of the way," Ramos panicked but his pokemon was too busy finishing the attack, suddenly the electric mouse slammed into the grass type knocking it out of the battle with a thunderous collision.

Ash nodded at his partner pokemon and then looked up at the disappointed gym leader, "phew that was close," Ash whispered to himself knowing how lucky he was to win that battle, Ash walked over to the elderly man and extended his hand out, "thank you sir for an amazing battle," Ash respectfully stated while the old man extended his hand out.

"Not bad, still maintaining that Volt Tackle through my best attacks," Ramos complimented his opponent, he pulled out a green badge and handed it to Ash, "well I guess that would be your fourth badge young man," Ramos stated with great pride.

Ash scratched his cheek and started to show some embarrassment, "not exactly, this would be my second badge," Ash professed as the man stood in shock at the news of being beaten by a trainer with just one other badge.

"Amazing, I never expected that young man, you are full of surprises," Ramos stated while turning around.

"Yeah, um there is rival, she has a lot of potential and umm, she will be here in over a week," Ash pointed out while feeling his heart racing as he remembered the girl he met in Lumiose City.

"You like this girl right?" Ramos questioned the trainer with a cheeky smile.

"What? What gave you that idea?" Ash asked the old trainer.

"It seems like when you talked about her, your face went a little red," Ramos stated while leaving the area.

"Come on buddy, we need to heal my pokemon," Ash told his partner as he left the gym to head to the Pokemon Center.

_(Cyllage City)_

Serena walked up the mountain side, she looked over the side to see the seaside city and its beauty, "I wonder, how is Ash going, I will hopefully see him soon," Serena whispered to herself while turning back towards the road heading towards the gym, 'but now, I will need to face the gym leader, then I will head straight to Shalour City,' Serena thought to herself, she turned towards road, she gulped knowing that the guard railing was keeping her safe, 'man I hate heights,' Serena thought to herself while remembering the time she was bullied at school.

Serena walked to the gym and waited for a moment, she gulped as she started to walk inside the gym, she looked around and spotted the large rock climbing wall, "welcome to my gym, if you want to face me, you will need to climb all the way up," A dark skinned man with black hair, wearing a black jumper and grey pants.

Serena looked at the climbing wall, "I hate heights, isn't there some sort of elevator or something?" Serena asked the gym leader.

"Sorry challenger, you need to reach this battlefield on your own strengths," the gym leader replied with a smile, he turned away and walked to his end of the battlefield.

Serena walked up to the wall and gulped for a moment, 'great, how can I conquer my fears?' Serena asked herself while closing her eyes, it was then she pictured Ash, 'I wonder what he would do,' Serena continued to ask herself, she moved her right hand on the grips on the climbing wall, she gulped again and placed on foot nervously she climbed up one step at a time, "I will not give up," Serena kept reminding herself as she continued to climb the wall, one step at a time.

Serena continued slowly as she tried to resist looking down, "oh man how far I am?" Serena said while eventually looking down, it felt like the ground for her was miles higher than it would be, 'I will not give up,' Serena tried to cheer herself up while closing her eyes again, she pictured her determined rival and continued to climb up the wall at a steady rate.

The gym leader looked across to see his challengers right hand, "ah she is almost here," the gym leader said with pride, eventually Serena emerged over the side and pushed herself to the flat surface, "well it seems like you have made it," the gym leader said as the young lady made it to safe land, "my name is Grant the gym leader of this city," the gym leader known as Grant introduced himself to the challenger.

"My name…..is Serena, I challenge you to a battle," Serena replied while panting, she looked back to see the ground level of the gym.

"This battle will be two on two," Grant told Serena calmly. He pulled out his pokeball ready to face Serena in battle, "go Amuara," Grant called for his light blue quadruped pokemon with small sails running down's its neck.

"Braixen, I choose you," Serena called out her newly evolved pokemon, the two legged pokemon colored mostly yellow with orange fur coming from his ears, "Start this round with Ember," Serena commanded her pokemon quickly.

"Use Aurora Beam," the gym leader ordered his pokemon calmly.

Ember was sent towards the charging pokemon but the colorful beam pushed through the attack before colliding into the fire type pokemon, "oh great now what," Serena asked herself while Grant shook his head, "use Confusion," Serena called for another attack.

"Use Rock Tomb," the gym leader ordered his pokemon without panic. Hsis rock type stomped on the ground causing small rocks to emerge trapping the fire type inside, "now to end this use Take Down," Grant ordered his pokemon without worry.

"Braixen!" Serena called out to her pokemon in shock, as the long neck pokemon rushed towards the fire type pokemon Braixen suddenly unleashed a powerful stream of fire at the gym leaders pokemon, "what did my Braixen just use Flamethrower?" Serena asked herself as the tundra pokemon fell back from the force of the attack, the rocks retracted as the fire type became free to counter the opposing pokemon.

"So her pokemon aren't as weak as I expected," Grant whispered to himself as his ice type pokemon get ready to charge towards the fire type pokemon.

"I will not be giving in that easily, Braixen, attack with Confusion," Serena called for the next attack of the battle, Braixen, grabbed the stick from his tail and started to wave it around causing a psychic wave to hit the tundra pokemon, "now complete the attack with Flamethrower," Serena called for the next attack, the fire type pokemon sent out a flurry of flames whiles the ice type was held back from confusion.

"No," Grant called out while his pokemon quickly became overwhelmed by the fire type move, 'not bad, she has potential, her moves aren't as fluid as my other opponents, but I get the feeling that there is something else pushing her forward,' Grant explained to himself while recalling his knocked out pokemon, "alright time to call my next pokemon, Tyrunt," Grant called forth his brown bipedal pokemon with a large head, "so, let's get this started, attack with Rock Tomb," the gym leader called for the next attack of the round.

"Dodge the attack with Flame Charge, the use Flamethrower," Serena instructed her pokemon. The starter pokemon dodged the attack easily by running towards the right side of the battlefield, as the fire type sent out another torrent of flames, but much to her shock the opposing pokemon shrugged it off like it was nothing, "what happened?" Serena asked herself in shock.

"Maybe that is because Tyrunt is a rock and dragon type pokemon," Gran replied to the inexperienced trainer, "well that mistake will cost you, Tyrunt finish this round with Dragon Claw," Grant instructed his royal heir pokemon ran towards Serena's fire type and slashed down on it with his white claws knocking out the pokemon with one hit.

"Braixen," Serena called in horror as her pokemon was about to fall off the edge, she quickly recalled her knocked out pokemon before it fell off the edge, she remembered something about the information inside her pokedex, 'oh right, dragons are weak against fairy types,' Serena thought as she looked towards the leader with her pokeball in site, as she was about to throw it out her green Bagon leapt out of his pokeball, "Bagon, hey I wasn't going to choose you, I was Floette," Serena proclaimed while her dragon tilted it's head away.

"Sorry to tell you this Serena, you must battle with Bagon," Grant told the challenger.

"But this pokemon will not listen to me," Serena stated while the green dragon glared at the trainer. It was then a smirk crept across her face, "Bagon, don't use Dragon Breath," Serena told her pokemon, but the small dragon went against her commands and unleashed green flames towards opposing pokemon.

"Tyrunt get out of the way," Grant ordered his pokemon hurriedly, his dragon ran to another part of the battlefield avoiding the dragon type move, "now attack with Dragon Claw again," Grant issued his command.

"Bagon, please use Dragon Claw," Serena instructed her dragon type pokemon, as the rock type pokemon charged towards it, the green dragon stepped aside to avoid the attack, but still didn't attack the opposing dragon type, 'great, it still will not listen to me,' Serena gritted her teeth as panic started to set in, "fine don't use Dragon Claw, use Headbutt instead," Serena instructed her pokemon. The green dragon ran towards the opposing pokemon but instead of using the intended attack Bagon used Dragon Claw.

"Wow, she is having real problems with this Bagon, I have heard rumours of a rebellious dragon pokemon, I guess the rumours are true," Grant whispered to himself while watching Serena pleading with Bagon to use the right attack, he watched as the dragon looked away, but soon turned towards the battle and charged towards the opposing Dragon who was laying on the battlefield, with his claws glowing it slashed down without Serena calling for an attack, "I lost, I guess, with that sort of pokemon in her team she will be powerful, but how will she get it to obey her?" Grant questioned the young trainer who recalled her pokemon as it let out a powerful roar.

"Bagon, I want to be your trainer, but why won't you listen to me?" Serena asked the pokemon, she walked up towards the gym leader and extended out her hand, "sorry about my Bagon, I don't know what to do," Serena professed while looking at the red and white device in her hand.

"You would have won anyway, your Floette has a huge advantage anyway," Grant replied while giving her the second badge, "oh don't worry about climbing back down there is a slide over there that will take you back to ground level," Grant said as he pointed over to the slide, the younger trainer walked over to the slide and looked at it for a moment, "also good luck with training your Bagon," Grant wished the victor well with a nod.

"Thank you Grant, I will talk to my rival, he is a better trainer than I am, maybe he can help me with Bagon," Serena replied as she sat down on the gym, her concerns now getting to her even more, she slide down and thought more about the problem that Ash had with one of his older pokemon, 'he saved his Charizard, but what do I do to get my Bagon to listen to me?' Serena kept questioning herself while keeping her pokeball close to her as she made it to the ground floor.

Serena walked out of the gym and looked towards the next road, "I will heal my pokemon, then I will head straight to Shalour City I refuse to lose to you Ash," Serena reminded herself as she walked towards the Pokemon Center.

_(Near Courmarine City a day later)_

"Hey look buddy a Pyroar, time to catch it," Ash decreed with great excitement, Ash walked up to the large pokemon with great excitement, the large red and yellow mane, "Pikachu attack with Volt Tackle," Ash instructed his partner pokemon, the small electric mouse charged towards the royal pokemon with no hesitation he gained a thunderous aura and crashed into the lion like pokemon.

He got up and unleashed a powerful Flamethrower at the electric mouse, "jump into the air, then use Thunderbolt," Ash ordered the electric mouse pokemon, Ash watched his pokemon leap into the air and aim a blast of electricity at the royal pokemon, hurting the powerful pokemon, "now it's time, Pokeball go," Ash called as he threw a red and white device at the fire type pokemon, the ball hit the pokemon on the head and trapped the pokemon inside, waiting for second the ball started to sway from side to side.

The wind picked up as the ball continued to move, "come on stay inside," Ash said while watching the device wobble, eventually the pokeball signified the capture of the new pokemon, Ash ran up to the pokeball and picked it up, "oh yeah, this is awesome I caught a Pyroar," Ash celebrated while raising the pokeball into the air.

Meanwhile in the distance a man in a red suit was watching the trainer celebrating his newly captured pokemon, "so, this trainer is the one Lysandre wants us to keep an eye on," the flare grunt stated while keeping his binoculars fixed on the trainer, it was the he noticed a balloon shaped like a Meowth head, "then there is Team Rocket, who are heading to Shalour City, we better get the two Mega Rings before anyone else doesm" the flare grunt stated while looking back to see his superior office nodding.

"Our mission, is to obtain immense power, our master will want us to get this power to destroy all life leaving only Team Flare to rule this world," the Admin stated while keeping his eye on the trainer, "the truth is he is interested in two trainers, they are both heading to Shalour City," the Admin mentioned with a smirk.

"Come on Pikachu we are almost there and I am certain Serena will be almost there as well," Ash assured his partner pokemon not realising that they were being watched by Team Flare and that Team Rocket was ahead of them.

* * *

**Who will win the race? Will Serena be able to find a way to get her Bagon to listen to her? Or will this challenge overcome her.**

**Next time in chapter 7: Opening Rounds, the Mega Tournament.**

Sorry that one took so long, the seventh chapter isn't far away.


	7. Opening Round, the Mega Tournament

**Chapter 7: Opening rounds, the Mega Tournament.**

_This tournament idea was brought to you by 26Naruto26 one of my reviewers, this idea was expanded upon and will last a few chapters, please enjoy this arc._

* * *

Ash had walked into the medium sized city, a massive Tower dominated the skyline and the sound of the crashing waves emanated, it was then he noticed the people in a festive mood, the streets were lined with stalls and the pokemon with their trainers were wondering through, Ash looked around to find the many food stalls selling a multitude of snacks and drinks, he looked around wondering where his new rival was hoping that she would have made it to the city, "you know buddy I think I won the race," Ash proclaimed with a smile as he looked around to see Serena participating in the festivities, "or not, I think we drew in this one," Ash whispered to his partner pokemon.

Ash slowly walked through the massive crowd and approached his young rival, "now Bagon you need to behave yourself," Serena told her green dragon type pokemon.

"Having trouble with your pokemon?" Ash asked after sneaking behind his rival.

Serena jumped up in shock after hearing Ash's voice, she turned around to see him with his hands on his hips, "don't scare me like that!" Serena yelled out in anger. Serena turned her attention to her different colored pokemon and started to sigh, "you know Ash, I have been trying to get this Bagon to listen to me, ever since I caught it, I could never train it," Serena commented with a frown, she recalled her pokemon.

Ash started to chuckle after hearing Serena's problem, "you know up until the Orange Island, I was having the same problems with one of my strongest pokemon, I think I was saying something about this a few days ago," Ash professed while Serena listened, shocked to hear that such an experienced trainer had issues with one of his partners, "that's right Serena, I was having issues with training my Charizard, eventually I saved his life and now he is one of my best pokemon," Ash explained as Serena listened with great intent, wondering how he did it, she knew that Charizard was a much bigger pokemon than her Bagon, "I had a battle against a Poliwrath, I lost my cool and called out my Charizard, he was hit by an Ice Beam, freezing him, I spent all night thawing him out," Ash told Serena the story of how he save his fire type pokemon, "but with that, my Charizard would still give me an affectionate Flamethrower to the head," Ash professed while Serena gasped at hearing the confession, she placed her hands over her mouth and leapt back.

"So will Charizard be participating in the tournament?" Serena asked curiously.

"Tournament?" Ash enquired unsure as to what his rival was talking about.

"You see Ash, there is this tag tournament, called the Mega Tournament, trainers from all over the world come to compete, each year the winning team members will be give an item called the Mega Ring," Serena explained the Tournament to the best of her ability, "and one of the trainers in that team will be given a Lucario by the gym leader herself," Serena told Ash with a smile.

"Well if that's the case you can have Lucario," Ash replied with joy.

"Me, are you going to join in?" Serena asked with a surprised expression, "also will I be your teammate?" Serena questioned the trainer still unable to hide her surprise.

"Yes I will be joining this tournament, and yes you will be my teammate, also I will not be using Charizard in this competition, it wouldn't be fair for everyone else," Ash replied to Serena's questions.

"Come on Ash, let's put our names down, oh and return Bagon," Serena recalled her pokemon.

Ash and Serena walked through the small city and towards the front counter for the tournament, Ash picked up a paper to use as a sign in, "alright Serena it seems like we only have three pokemon each, so I think I will go with Gabite, Froakie and Pyroar," Ash named his team for the tournament, Ash handed over the paper and the pen.

"Thanks Ash," Serena thanked the trainer and took the pen, thinking about the tournament she thought closely about the pokemon she wanted to use, 'I cannot use my Bagon, Ash and I will lose,' Serena thought to herself knowing how much the dragon disliked him as a trainer, "I will put in Floette, Amuara and Torchic," Serena wrote down her pokemon calmly.

"Good, oh and don't worry too much about it, I will help support you in this tournament," Ash promised the blonde haired trainer with a confident smile, the two walked over to the front counter ready to partake in the competition .

"Ash, you know the battles will not be happening for another few hours do you think we can… spend some time together?" Serena asked the trainer, she closed her eyes and grew a little nervous about her rival's response.

"Sure, where would you like to go?" Ash asked quietly as his partner pokemon scratched his head in amazement.

"Um I was thinking to a café," Serena replied apprehensively. Ash looked around and spotted a nice place, he led Serena towards the café and pulled out a seat for her, Serena started blushing at the gesture and sat down, 'wow, Ash is such a gentleman,' Serena thought while watching the trainer take his seat.

"How about we get an order?" Ash asked while looking at the menu on the table, Ash scanned the menu from top to bottom with a smile on his face drooling at the number of meals on the page, 'oh wow, so much food, I think I will order half a page,' Ash thought with joy.

"Um Ash, here I was want to give this to you," Serena said nervously while handing a fossil to Ash.

Ash stared at the fossil for a moment, "what is it Serena?" Ash asked as he turned the fossil around.

Serena gulped while Ash continued to inspect the item, "it is a Jaw Fossil," Serena replied while starting to play with her fingers, "um Ash, I was wonder….what you think of…..me?" Serena asked feeling nervous about how her rival was going to respond to her question.

"I think you have a lot of potential as a trainer," Ash replied with a smile, seemingly oblivious to the true meaning of the question.

Serena looked away as her heart started to race, "no that's not what I meant, you said a few times, that I was…." Serena started getting more nervous about wanting to talk with Ash, "cute," Serena finally finished her face turning a little red.

Ash looked over to his partner pokemon and smiled gently, "yeah you're cute, I mean, you dress nicely and I really like your personality," Ash replied quickly.

Serena gulped for a moment and started to feel more at ease, she looked up to the waiter who was ready to take their order, "I would like a cup of tea and a strawberry cheesecake," Serena placed her order.

Ash looked at the page and smiled, "I would like to have the top half of this page," Ash placed his order in much to the shock of the blonde haired trainer sitting opposite him and the waiter.

'What, I cannot believe it Ash is ordering a lot of food,' Serena thought while looking at his pleased smile, 'but that smile when ordering his food, he looks so adorable,' Serena thought with a warm feel in her heart.

Ash turned his attention to Serena as the waiter left to fulfil the order, "so Serena, how have things been in Kalos for you?" Ash asked while placing his elbows on the table and his head in his hands.

Serena took a deep breath and started to think back about her past, "well Ash, after moving to Kalos, I went to another school, I wasn't really confident about it, plus my mom wanted me to be a Rhyhorn Racer, something I really hate," Serena commented while memories of her past started to replay in her mind, "I didn't like school much, to be honest I am far from perfect, every guy in school would over look me for other girls and my confidence was at an all-time low," Serena explained everything as she gulped and hesitated about wanting to tell her rival more.

"So that's why you asked me about what I think of you," Ash replied, Serena nodded with a guilty expression, "to be honest Serena, you're a beautiful young lady, I mean any guy who would overlook you most likely doesn't have any brains," Ash said while trying to cheer up the blonde haired rival.

"Really, most of the girls in school called plain looking, they all said no guy would want to go out with me, I was subject to bullying in school, most times I would return home, bury my head into my pillow and cry, most times wishing I was back in Pallet Town so we could continue being friends," Serena explained more of her past to Ash.

Ash listened shocked about how his rival had a hard time, "and your mother's rigorous training didn't help you much either," Ash stated causing the girl to smile softly as the waiter placed their respective orders on the table in front of the trainer, "hey Serena, how about when we get to Lumiose City, we go to another café and maybe we can see a movie together," Ash suggested quietly.

"You mean a date?" Serena asked with a bright smile.

Ash with his face turning red, he noted Serena shedding a tear, he placed his right hand under the tear and wiped it away, "yeah, if that's alright," Ash asked nervously.

Serena felt more at ease after the feel of Ash wiping away her tears, 'just like back in the forest all those years ago,' Serena thought while flashing back to the day he bandaged up her knee with a handkerchief with a blue outline, "Ash, do you remember this item?" Serena asked while pulling out the same piece of cloth with a blue outline, she showed to Ash and with a hopeful smile she handed it to Ash.

Ash looked at it and nodded, "yeah, I think it was when you got hurt when we were kids," Ash replied fondly.

Serena acknowledged the memory and took back the item, "you know when I was getting bullied by these kids I would return home, not only cry but look at this and remember the times you made me smile," Serena professed while placing the handkerchief back into her pocket. She looked up to witness Ash eating his food, one plate after the other, 'wow this guy will be hard to feed, I wonder what other foods he likes?' Serena asked herself as she grabbed a fork and started eating her cheesecake.

"So Serena, you went up against Team Flare ha?' Ash asked while putting another plate of food down.

"Yeah, but the odd thing is, they are similar to you," Serena commented while pointing at the trainer.

"What do you mean, I don't go around killing everybody," Ash enquired in shock.

Serena shrugged her shoulders and stood, "okay then, let me ask you, what do you think of my attire, fashionable or strange?" Serena asked her rival.

"How would I know? I mean come on I am not into fashion or anything like that," Ash replied with a frown, he crossed his arms, but before he could get up Serena grabbed his arm and dragged him to the streets, "where are you taking me? We do need to pay for the meals," Ash stated before trying to grab for the last piece of food on his plate.

"Nothing to worry about Ash, I put a cheque on the table," Serena replied with a grin, she continued to pull Ash towards another location, "since you have no idea about fashion we should at least get you some better clothes," Serena chimed while stopping at the location of choice.

Ash looked up to see a shop filled with suits, "no, not this, somebody get me a paper bag," Ash cried out while being dragged into the shops, "I hate suits," Ash yelled out before trying to run out of the building.

"Well then, I guess that mean I will not be going to the movies with you or going to a café in Lumiose City," Serena commented, Ash stopped after hearing the reply, he looked down and walked back with Pikachu laughing at his trainer, Ash looked back at his partner pokemon, 'yes, I have him wrapped around my little finger, soon, I will get him a suit for,' Serena thought while placing a finger from her right hand at the corner of her mouth, she started to think about him in a suit while she was wearing an elegant white dress.

"Hey Serena what are you thinking about?" Ash asked while his partner pokemon laughed at him, "traitor, no gym battle for you," Ash snapped at his pokemon.

Serena waved her hands in front of her face and stepped back, "nothing Ash, just a silly thought that's all," Serena replied as she turned to see a nice suit on one of the stands, 'that was close,' Serena thought while breathing a sigh of relief, Ash followed her to the area and pictured him wearing the suit, "hey why not try it on Ash?" Serene enquired quietly.

"Will it get me out of this shop?" Ash asked while looking back towards the young lady, she nodded with a nervous smile, "okay I will try it on," Ash replied while grabbing a test suit for the customers, he walked towards the fitting room and started to change himself.

'I can picture it in my mind, but I wonder what he will look like in real life?' Serena asked herself waiting to see what happens, sipping her smoothie that she had taken from the café, "come on Ash, hurry up," Serena called for her rival.

Ash emerged from the fitting room, surprised at the appearance, Serena dropped her smoothie and placed her hand over her mouth in shock, "so Serena how do I look?" Ash asked the blushing lady.

'Wow, it is better than I imagined,' Serena thought to herself, she gulped and got a little closer to Ash, "I want you to wear that more often, you look really good," Serena replied, he mouth agape she shook it off for a moment and turned towards the exit.

"I should buy this suit?" Ash asked, but the blonde haired trainer ignored the question.

Not sure what to think Serena continued her way out of the store, while Ash paid in full for the suit, she looked around towards the main arena as the opposing trainers prepared for the battle, her heart racing knowing that Ash looked really good in the suit, she drowned out the noise of the festivities and remembered the picture of Ash in a suit, "I was wondering what he would look like," Serena whispered to herself, she looked back to see Ash purchase the suit, a smile graced her face, watching Ash exit the building, "I cannot believe you bought it Ash," Serena said silently.

"Yeah, but if I didn't buy it, you would be upset," Ash replied calmly.

"Come on Ash, we need to get to the tournament," Serna told her rival. The blonde haired trainer walked a head while placing her clasped hands under her chin, 'I cannot believe it he looked so cool in that suit, I want to see him dress like that more often,' Serena continued to resolve, she continued towards the stadium with Ash walking behind her.

"You know buddy, Serena is acting a little weird, I mean what was the purpose of making me get a suit?" Ash asked while his partner pokemon closed his eyes and shook his head. The raven haired trainer looked ahead to see Serena walking a head, he felt his heart racing and his face heating up a little, 'we had only met, but Serena is really cute, I mean she is…' Ash thought while placing his right hand over his head, "what am I thinking, I have only just met her, but I feel as though I have known her a lot longer," Ash asked himself while remembering the date request he made to her, 'her personality is sweet, am I?' Ash wondered while keeping his eyes glued on the young woman in front of him, yet again he shook it off like it was nothing, it was something that continued to bother him.

"Hurry up Ash, the tournament is about to begin!" Serena called over to Ash, she turned around and ran towards the stadium, 'this isn't like Ash to dawdle like that, what is he thinking, I mean he was the first guy I had a crush on since he helped me in the forest,' Serena thought while thinking about her past again, she entered the stadium quietly with Ash following her in soon after, "took your time," Serena teased Ash.

Ash walked slowly but calmly, wondering what he was thinking when it came to Serena, "you know buddy, it was at Parfum Palace when I was thinking about something, I still don't understand it, but is this how it feels buddy?" Ash asked in a concerned manner, "you know the racing heart and sometimes I feel a little nervous when talking to her," Ash stated the situation to his partner pokemon.

Ash walked into the main stadium to see a crowd of people ready to watch the Tournament take place, it was there that Ash spotted Serena walking backwards towards him, "not them, please anyone but those two," Serena whispered while pointing towards four people from her past, Ash looked up to see two girls both dressed in a blue dress with a white blouse and two teens about the same age as Ash both dressed in a white college jacket and blue jeans.

"Serena, are you alright?" Ash asked with concern.

Serena tried to walk further away before she was spotted by the group of four, "well if it isn't Serena, the sweet little girl who couldn't stand up for herself," one of the girls said in a teasing manner.

"Oh yeah, that little girl who would always cry because she wasn't in her home region," the male trainer recognised the blonde haired trainer.

'I guess these weaklings must be her bullies from school,' Ash thought to himself before extending his arm out in front of his frightened rival, he glared at the four people with his Pikachu sparking from the cheeks.

"Hey this doesn't concern you," the blacked male on the left stated while smiling at the trainer.

"Why don't you four pick on someone who can defend themselves, someone like me," Ash replied with a determined expression on his face.

The girls started to laugh at the trainer, "oh did sweet little Serena find herself a boyfriend, funny she couldn't find one during school when there were others better looking than you," the red head stated with a smug smile.

"Well I guess they had small brains like the four of you," Ash replied with a smile, the male trainer on the left grabbed Ash by the collar, "what are you going to do? Punch me, because if you do, you get disqualified and that means no Mega Ring for you clowns," Ash enquired while smirking at the much bigger man, "oh and to answer your question, I guess she found one," Ash commented while grinning at the opposing trainer.

The four people walked away and left Ash and Serena alone, "Serena, are you alright, I want to battle those four, prove to them that you're a decent person," Ash said while looking up at the tournament board.

Ash and Serena watched for a moment, they watched as their team was shuffled with the rest of the teams, it was then that Ash and Serena found out that they were facing Serena's bullies, "did we have to face them?" Serena asked while noticing Ash cracking his knuckles, "why are you so excited Ash?" Serena asked the trainer with a frown.

"I want to beat them badly," Ash replied with a smirk, "plus I cannot stand what they said about you, I would rather get knocked down and get back up rather than let them walk over you like that," Ash explained while Serena stood in shook, her mouth agape at the trainer's reply, "our battle is first, excellent, I really want to embarrass them," Ash said while giving his rival a thumbs up.

Serena gulped nervously she spotted the four trainers laughing at her and Ash, 'why did Ash have to get involved?' Serena wondered, she looked up and smiled at the young man, her face was slightly reddened by the fact that he stood up for her, 'but then again, I think I am in love with Ash,' Serena thought while looking at the trainer fondly without him realising.

'I will not let anyone hurt Serena,' Ash thought to himself while trying not to look back.

_(15 minutes later)_

Ash and Serena were standing at the ready to face their first opponents, they watched the duo calling out their two pokemon for the battle, the male trainer called out a large rock like pokemon with two short arms and two powerful legs while the girl called out a blue pokemon with a white coat, "Golem and Sawk," Ash whispered while pulling out his pokeball.

"Come on you two call out your pokemon so we can defeat it quickly," the male trainer taunted Ash and Serena.

"Forakie, I choose you," Ash called for his water pokemon to battle the duo.

Ash looked over and waited for his rival to call out her pokemon, "Floette, I choose you," Serena called out her small pokemon.

The two opposing trainers started laughing at the two and shook their heads, "you two intend to beat us with two weak pokemon like that," the male trainer questioned Ash while shaking his head, "Golem, attack with Roll Out," the male trainer called for the first attack of the battle.

"Sawk, attack with Karate Chop," the female trainer ordered her pokemon.

Golem started rolling towards the blue frog and the karate pokemon ran towards the fairy pokemon ready to strike with an open hand. Ash smiled at the two and readied himself for a swift counter attack, "Froakie attack with Water Pulse," Ash instructed his pokemon calmly. "Serena use a fairy type attack on Sawk," Ash whispered to his rival. Froakie formed a ball of water in his palms and threw it at the rolling Golem, the attack hit hard causing the rock type to fall back from the force of the attack.

"Right, use Moon Blast Floette," Serena ordered her pokemon, the Floette started to glow with the light of the moon, then she unleashed powerful blast of energy towards the fighting type pokemon, the two powerful attacks caused the two pokemon to fall back near their trainers making them gasp in horror as their pokemon started to get back up slowly. Serena looked on in shock as the opposing pokemon barely held on, "Ash what happened?" Serena asked her rival who was smiling.

"Sturdy, an ability that prevents one hit knock-outs," Ash commented while the two pokemon got back to their feet.

"So we need to hit them one more time," Serena acknowledged while her pokemon got ready to attack again.

"We will not let you defeat us!" the two trainers declared while they glared at the duo.

Ash smirked while looking over to their pokemon, "your pokemon might seem strong, but they

aren't well trained," Ash replied, "Froakie, attack with Bubble Beam," Ash ordered for another round of the battle.

"Roll Out now," the male trainer ordered his pokemon again.

"Use Brick Break," the girl trainer called for another attack.

Ash sighed knowing that their battle lacked any form of strategy, "why us?" Ash asked himself while remaining calm. His pokemon easily dodged the attacks and hit the two pokemon with a burst of bubbles leaving them busy to contend with Serena's pokemon

Serena nodded and looked at her pokemon, "finish this with Dazzling Gleam," Serena told her pokemon. The fairy type pokemon started to glow unleashing a powerful light towards the two pokemon.

Ash smiled at his rival, he turned back to the battle to see the two opposing pokemon fainting from the battle, "oh wow, Ash and Serena have beaten the two powerful trainers," the MC said with a smile while the four trainers recalled their pokemon from the battlefield.

After recalling the pokemon the opposing two trainers walked up to them and shook their hands, "wow you both surprised us," the male trainer said with great embarrassment, the two opponents showed more respect to Ash and now Serena, "oh and one more thing, it might be a little late, but sorry for our attitude towards, you," the male trainer apologised to Serena with a nervous smile.

"Well people do grow up, I mean the last time I remember seeing Ash was where we were kids," Serena acknowledged while the couple in front them smiled calmly, "apology accepted, next time you bully me, I might beat you into submission, right Steven and Christine?" Serena joked to the two people in front of her.

"Ah, I think I will pass on that battle and I will make sure not to pick on Little Serena again," the male trainer know as Steven chuckled while walking back.

"Wimp," Christine berated her boyfriend, Christine grabbed the blonde by the arm and pulled her away towards the hallway, "hey Serena, can I ask you something?" the opposing female trainer asked the younger trainer.

"What is it?" Serena asked nervously.

"I saw you walking around the city with that guy," Christine stated while looking over to Ash, 'he is quite the catch in my eyes,' the young woman thought with a smile, "is he your boyfriend?" the woman whispered causing Serena to turn bright red.

Serena jumped back shocked at what she was asked she waved her hands in front of her face and shook her head, "what? What makes you think that? We're just rivals," Serena asked while the two guys looked at the blonde haired trainer who was still in shock and now trying to hide her blushing from everyone.

Ash approached Serena with a smile on his face, "come on Serena, we need to rest our pokemon and watch the rest of this round," Ash said while walking next to the blonde.

The two watched with a proud smile, seeing the two talking together, "you know, I think little Serena has a boyfriend," the female trainer commented while seeing her victim from the school days smile brightly.

"Why do you say that?" the female trainer's boyfriend asked.

"Her face went really red, and she denied it outright, but I can tell she is in love with that guy," the woman said with a smirk, "then there is the way he acts around her," she pointed out as she remembered the moment Ash stood up for her.

"Well what do you know, little Serena grew up, too bad they beat us in battle," the man said while scratching the back of his head.

_(Two hours later)_

Ash and Serena were watching the battle at another café, this time both of them were walking back to the stadium with a smoothie each, "you know Ash, I haven't thanked you for," Serena started as she got nervous at wanting to talk to Ash, she looked over to him and smiled gently, "thanks for standing up for me, I never really had the courage to that before," Serena thanked her rival while placing the straw in her mouth to drink some of the smoothie.

"N-not a problem, I didn't want to see you getting bullied Serena," Ash replied nervously.

Ash and Serena made it to the arena to see the last two teams completing their round, "seems like we will be battling soon," Serena said with hope.

Ash and Serena looked up to see who their next opponents were going to be, "I hope it will be someone good," Ash eagerly awaited the revelation of his next team he and Serena would face off against next.

"So, Ash I was thinking," Serena started while feeling more nervous about talking to Ash, 'I really want him to see me battle the gym leader,' Serena thought with a frown.

"Serena, are you alright?" Ash asked his rival quietly.

"Yeah, I am fine Ash, I was just wondering…if you would like to s-see me battle against the Gym leader," Serena asked the trainer nervously.

"Yeah of course, it would be interesting to see what other pokemon you have," Ash replied with a soft smile as their next opponents were revealed.

Serena smiled at the trainer as she felt more at ease with his reply, 'yes I get to show him how much I have improved,' Serena thought to herself while softly smiling at the trainer.

Ash looked at the team they were facing off against as he clenched his fists in anger, "what I know those two, Team Rocket, just what are they after?" Ash asked while keeping calm, 'great I wonder what pokemon they have this time,' Ash wondered with a frown.

Later that night Serena was sitting in her room writing in her book, "it is unbelievable, the people I battle against were my bullies from school, they turned out to be nice people now," Serena told herself as she wrote down her thoughts in her book, it was one thought that crossed her mind, something she couldn't deny to herself, the light beamed down on the book as the ideas flowed in, "is this what this feeling is like? I thought I would never experience it for myself, how do I tell him? Since I was told that I never would find a guy," Serena kept asking herself as she wrote more in her book, "I battled with him at my side, his courage seems like it will help me overcome everything, maybe it will make my dreams come true," Serena kept on writing as she talked to herself, "is this what it means to be….." Serena started asking herself before hearing the knocks on her bedroom door.

"Serena, I can hear you talking are you alright?" Ash asked causing the young lady to close her book.

Serena placed her book back into her backpack, "nothing is wrong Ash, just thinking out loud," Serena replied while jumping into her bed, 'it feels wonderful to know that I have finally found someone, I can truly love, but how do I tell him, he might reject me,' Serena thought to herself as more thoughts played through in her mind.

Meanwhile Ash walked into his room and looked over to his partner pokemon, "I know buddy, you seem disappointed, how do I tell her? What if she rejects me? I have never told a girl that sort of stuff before," Ash told his friend while thinking about the young woman again, he walked to his bed and thought about his past with Serena, 'how do I say it?' Ash asked himself while his Pikachu shook his head in shame, "hey take it easy buddy, I have never felt this nervous before," Ash told his partner pokemon while taking a seat on his bed.

* * *

**Ash and Serena defeated their first opponents, the two are now starting to show signs of developing feelings for one another but they remain unaware if it, but now they face a much tougher challenge Team Rocket, will Ash and Serena win this next round?**

**Next time Chapter 8: Troubles arrive**

_I will be starting a one-shot series between Ash and Serena called Amour Stories, they will be short and sweet stories ranging between 1000-1500 words each, if any of you want to make a request please PM me about it, the series will last between 35 and 40 stories, might go longer depending on how many requests I get, or how much more I like this pairing, the good thing is I really like this pairing more so than Pearl and Advance._


	8. Trouble's Arrival

**Chapter 8: Trouble's arrival.**

_This will be the next two rounds of this short tournament, hope you all enjoy it._

* * *

"You two were too soft on them," a male voice told two people off, he stood there with his arms crossed angry at the defeat of the two trainers, "we didn't expect to see Serena at the Mega Tournament, but we promised to make her life a living hell," the bully said with a frown while his girlfriend nodded in agreement, the two turned around while Christine looked over to Steven and shook their heads, "what excuse do you have this time?" the male trainer asked with his fists clenched in anger.

Steven sighed knowing that the answer wasn't going to be what his friend wanted to hear, "you don't want to hear this but people have to grow up, those days are gone, Mark and Blair," Steven replied with a confident smile, he looked towards the main foyer and smiled at Serena who was sitting at the table having breakfast with Ash, "you want to know something, even after all the nasty pranks we pulled on her, I am still proud that she beat us in battle," Steven told his friends while turning towards the main foyer.

"Mark and Blair, I certainly hope that one day, you two will eventually learn that you were wrong as well, it might have seemed fun back in the day, but when I think about it, it was wrong, to be honest, I was wanting to catch up with Serena and tell her I was so sorry so many times, I guess Steven and I grew up faster than you two," Christine told her friends, she turned to Steven and started to approach the two people eating at the table, she looked back with shame knowing that their friends were wrong, she shook her head in displeasure as her friends started to have a go at them for not making fun of Serena and Ash.

"Come on Mark, we are wasting our time with those two," Blair told her boyfriend while they walked into their respective rooms.

Meanwhile at the table Ash and Serena were talking about their next opponents until they were approached by Steven and Christine, "hey you two, so having breakfast together, well we better not interrupt their morning date," Christine teased Ash and Serena with a playful smile.

"First off Christine, Ash and I aren't dating, and secondly where are the other two?" Serena replied to the much friendlier people.

Steven took up a seat and sat down to have breakfast, "well, let's say we have had a slight disagreement, they didn't want us to move on from our old ways," Steven replied with a chuckle as he placed a pancake in his mouth.

"Wow, so those two are still jerks," Serena enquired with a frown.

Christine sat next to Serena and smiled at her, "hey there is one question Serena, how is your book going?" Christine asked while grabbing some of the toast and spreading jam onto it.

"Not too bad Christine, I was writing some stuff in it last night," Serena replied while pulling it out.

"Yeah if I remember correctly she wanted to write a book about her journey," Steven replied as Christine started to flip through the pages, much to her interest she read through her amazing battles and the troubles with Team Flare, "so Christine, what else is there?" Steven asked while looking over Christine's shoulder.

"Hey look Steven I think we have found some evidence," Christine pointed out a paragraph from the book, "so Serena, as I read in this passage, you are too nervous to say something to a certain someone," Christine stated while reading the passage.

"Stop it, that isn't nice," Serena snapped back as her face started to turn red again.

"Take it easy, we aren't going to bully you ever again, but you do need to tell him how you feel," Christine whispered to the younger trainer.

"But how, what if he rejects me?" Serena asked her new friend.

"What if he doesn't? you will never know unless you get out of that shell of yours, you need to tell him or you will miss out due to another girl, and I will be damned if that girl turns out to be Blair," Christine told Serena with a playful smile, she handed back the book and stood up, "he is yours, but you need to say something to him," Christine stated while glaring at Blair who was approaching the table.

Serena noticed the angered expression on Christine's face, "wait I thought you and Blair are good friends," Serena asked while Blair stood behind her and pulled the book from her hands.

"Blair, give that back Serena," Christine instructed her friend.

"Why should I? This could be fun, to see what Serena wrote," Blair replied while starting to open the book up.

Christine walked up to Blair and snatched the book away from her, she handed it back to Serena and stared at her friend, "when will you grow up? Those days are behind us," Christine asked her friend, Blair ignored the question and walked off to prepare for battle, "oh well, it seems like you and Ash have to prepare for the next round, good luck Serena," Christine said with a smile, she started to walk off but stopped half way between Serena and the door, "Serena, I am sorry for what happened in the past," Christine said happily, Serena watched the older trainer walking out the door, and looked at her book for a moment.

Ash approached the blonde haired rival and looked at the book as well, "so are you reading something Serena?" Ash questioned his rival.

Serena placed her book back into her backpack and shook her head, "it's for me to and for you to find out," Serena retorted as she grabbed the last of the breakfast.

"Come on we have a tournament to win," Ash told Serena with a smirk.

Outside the Pokemon Center the Team Rocket trio were keeping an eye on the area, "so Jessie, we face him and the girl, we need to win those Mega Rings, our boss needs those to take over the world," James stated with a smirk while looking down onto the city with his binoculars, he scanned the area to see four people dressed in red approaching the large tower, "it seems like Team Flare is here for the same reason as us," James said with a smirk.

"They don't give up, you five head to the Tower, make sure Team Flare don't get to the top before us," Jessie stated while the cat like pokemon lead four more members of Team Rocket towards their target.

"Jessie, we need to go, our battle is about to start," James stated as the duo leapt off of the building and rushed towards the arena.

At the stadium Ash and Serena awaited their foes, "here they are, Jessie and James from the Kanto region," the MC declared while they stood opposite to the two trainers.

"Seviper, go," Jessie called for her black serpent like pokemon with a dagger like tail to battle the two opposing trainers.

"Cacturne, let's go," James called out his green cactus like pokemon.

"Torchic, let's show them what we are made of," Serena called out her second fire type pokemon.

"Right, Gabite, I choose you," Ash called for his dragon type pokemon, Ash looked towards his rival and called over to her, "you attack from a distance, your pokemon still lacks experience," Ash commented calmly, he returned his focus back to the battlefield.

"Right, Torchic attack with Ember," Serena called for the first attack of the battle.

"Pitiful, Seviper attack that little runt with Poison Tail," Jessie countered the blonde haired trainer, the serpent like pokemon slithered its way towards the young woman's fire type pokemon.

"Gabite use Dragon Claw to defend Torchic," Ash ordered his pokemon quickly, the dragon rushed towards the fang snake pokemon with a glowing white claw.

"Defend Seviper with Needle Arm," James instructed his pokemon without hestitation, the grass type pokemon ran towards the dragon type while swinging his arm around.

"No, Torchic use Ember while spinning around," Serena ordered her pokemon quickly, as her pokemon was defended by Gabite who was then hit by Cacturne's Needle Arm, in an instant the small fire type spun around unleashing powerful embers on both the enemy pokemon after spinning around the small fire type landed ready to take the battle on.

"Nicely done Serena, I have an idea, since those two are struggling to keep up with us, let's try a combination move," Ash suggested while the two opposing pokemon.

"Seviper attack with Crunch," Jessie ordered her pokemon.

"Cacture follow up with Needle Arm again," James instructed his pokemon, the scarecrow pokemon ran behind the snake like pokemon with his arms swinging, and glowing green.

Ash remained calm as they got closer, "Now Serena, command Torchic to use Ember," Ash told his partner in the tournament, "My Gabite will use Dragon Claw," Ash commanded his pokemon as Serena nodded her head in agreement.

"Ember now Torchic," Serena commanded her fire type, she watched as the dragon type pokemon leapt into the air with his claws glowing, charging towards the two pokemon without fear, the fires surrounded the dragon as he got closer, "what he is combining Ember with his Dragon Claw," Serena whispered while the dragon slashed down with a flaming claw, taking out Seviper then following up with a another flaming Dragon Claw on Cacturne.

"Yes," Ash celebrated with joy as the two opposing pokemon fell to the ground unable to battle.

Serena was surprised to say the least, she couldn't believe how Ash was able to adapt to the battle situation so quickly, "wow, I didn't expect you to be that good," Serena whispered while recalling her pokemon from the battle.

"Hey, that was great, also I noticed your Torchic getting faster, I wonder is his ability Speed Boost?" Ash asked his rival quickly, Ash and Serena walked towards the competitor's hallway, they walked down the hall knowing that the next lot of battles were going to take place as they walked down two of Serena's bullies walked by, they each glared at the girl leaving her intimidated by their presence, "Serena, don't worry about them, when we battle them, we will prove that we are the better team," Ash assured the young trainer calmly as he placed his hand on her shoulder, "you have some really good pokemon, I wonder how much more you can improve?" Ash enquired with a grin.

"Thanks Ash, it is great having support from you," Serena retorted as she spotted the hand on her right shoulder, she gulped for a moment and tried to gather the courage to say something to Ash, "Ash, there is something I need to say," Serena said before hearing some rumblings not too far from where she was standing.

"It seems like that battle has gotten me a little hungry," Ash commented while placing his hand over his stomach.

Serena watched Ash running towards the exit, her smile was bright, but she was still too nervous to day something, Christine's words played back in her mind, 'you're right Christine, I guess, I am still in need of confidence,' Serena thought to herself as she looked back to see the two people she would most likely battle against in the grand final. Serena ran towards the exit to get lunch with Ash, wanting to think about her own goals as well, 'for now, Ash is my rival, but one day, I will say something to him, I will open up my feelings to him,' Serena thought as she exited the arena.

Ash was walking around the festival grounds with a large pizza in his hands, "hey Serena, want to have a pizza?" Ash asked his team mate while showing the pizza in his hands.

"Sure Ash, I know a really great place to go and have our pizza," Serena replied while leading the experienced trainer to the sounds of crashing waves, she ignored the people and ran towards the tower in the distance, eventually she sat down and looked out to the blue seas, "I have always wanted to see this place," Serena stated while Ash sat next to her with a pizza now resting on his lap, the sound of the crashing waves caused Ash to relax while Serena grabbed a slice of the pizza, she took a bite before spitting it out, "Ash, what's on this pizza?" Serena asked while waving her hand in front of her mouth.

"Jalapenos, hot pepperoni, ham, Pineapple, chilies," Ash replied with a smile while placing a slice of the pizza in his mouth and started to chew it without a problem, "I take it you don't like spicy food, hold on I will be back in a moment," Ash told his friend with laughter, he ran off to get something for his rival, "just wait here Serena," Ash told the young woman as he hurried off to get her some food.

Serena opened up her book and started to write down what was on her mind, "Ash, is such a gentleman, even though I don't like spicy food he is willing to go off and get me something I really like," Serena stated while writing down more inside, she placed the pen on her mouth and started to think, "it seems like I have been making more friends as well, but even with two bullies I still need to stand on my own two feet, so relying on Ash for me to get stronger is something I cannot do," Serena told herself as she wrote more into her story.

After fifteen minutes Ash had returned with a delivery of food, "so Serena, what is about that book, you reading a story?" Ash asked with a smile causing the young woman to suddenly close her book and drop her pen.

"Yeah I am reading a book, I take the time to read," Serena lied to Ash while putting her book away into her bag and grabbed some of the food that Ash was about to give her, "is it spicy?" Serena asked her rival, she took a bite of the food and felt that the food was safe to eat, "thank you Ash," Serena thanked Ash with a smile she grabbed more of the food and placed it in her mouth, her eyes shut she enjoyed every bite she was taking, the sea breeze started to pick up with the waves getting slightly larger.

Ash noticed her hair swaying in the breeze and her joyous smile, 'wow she is really pretty,' Ash thought to himself but hit his head for even thinking about it, 'stupid me, she is my rival, how can I even think about how pretty she is?' Ash questioned himself, he turned towards the sea and started to eat his pizza again, "hey Serena, I have a question, what do you want to do after competing in the Kalos League?" Ash asked his rival with his face starting to turn slightly red.

Serena placed her right hand over her chin and thought about what she wanted to do next, "hm, I would like to see all the regions," Serena replied with a gentle smile, she looked up and started to picture her traveling with Ash holding hands, "I don't want to do it alone you know, I want someone special to be with me, when I see the regions," Serena commented while avoiding eye contact with Ash

"I have an idea, how about you visit the regions and I come along with you?" Ash suggested as he took another bite of his spicy hot pizza.

Serena clasped her hands together and got closer to Ash, "you mean it Ash, I would love for that to happen," Serena replied with great excitement.

"Yeah, I wouldn't mind, plus, we can help each other get stronger and you can meet some of my friends," Ash told the blonde haired trainer while pulling out photos from his bag, "here are some of my friends," Ash pointed out with great pride, Serena looked at the pictures and smiled.

Serena tilted her head and noticed the trainer of her interest was happy to be travelling with so many people, "wow Ash, you have travelled with a lot of people, who are these people?" Serena asked.

Ash moved closer and started pointing at the people, "well these two are my first travelling companions, the red head is Misty, she is the gym leader of Cerulean City, the guy next to me who travelled with me for a long time is Brock," Ash pointed towards the young man standing next to Ash.

"The what about these two?" Serena enquired while looking at the red clad teenager with short brown hair and her brother with large frame glasses, brown shorts and a green shirt.

"Those two are May and her brother Max," Ash replied as memories of his journey in Hoenn filled his mind.

"And what about her? She is really pretty," Serena enquired further while looking at the picture of a blue haired female, 'was she his girlfriend?' Serena asked herself while seeing how close they seem to be in the picture.

"Her name is Dawn, she is a fantastic coordinator, I also think you are interested in being a coordinator as well," Ash retorted while seeing Serena a little upset for a moment, "and lastly, the last two people I travelled with, Iris and Cilan," Ash explained while pointing to a girl with long purple hair and her partner pokemon Axew, then to a man with green hair in a waiter's outfit, "each of my friends were really interesting people, Brock here is a really good cook, but I found that his biggest problem was, he always hit on a pretty girl, most of them older than him, Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny were his biggest victims," Ash laughed as he explained the times with his friends, he took the pictures back and placed them back into his backpack.

"You have so many memories, and yet for me, I have only just started traveling with pokemon, yet you, seem to be traveling all the time," Serena told her raven haired rival.

"Come on Serena our next battle will be up soon, so we better head off," Ash advised the younger trainer calmly. Ash got up and started walking towards the arena for their next battle, as he started walking towards the tournament grounds, he bumped into a lady wit long blonde hair wearing a white helmet, white and red shirt, dress and roller skates, the young lady fell to the ground, "you need to be a little more careful," Ash chuckled while helping the young lady up.

"Oh sorry I was in a rush, I heard rumours someone is attacking the Tower of Mastery," the lady said before skating off towards the tower in the distance.

"She didn't even introduce herself," Ash hissed while recommencing his walk towards the, 'but there is something interesting about her, can she also use aura?' Ash asked himself while looking back to see if the young lady was still heading towards the tower.

"Is there a problem Ash?" Serena asked her rival who was perplexed about the young lady who rushed by.

"Serena, do you know who that roller skater is?" Ash asked the Kalos, native coolly, Serena shook her head and wondered what Ash was on about, "it's odd, I can sense something hidden, she has two Lucarios," Ash commented with great confidence.

"How do you know that Ash?" Serena questioned him.

Ash shook it off and turned back towards the arena, "no time to think about it, let's win this competition," Ash replied with a serious disposition, he walked towards the arena while Serena looked down at the small yellow pokemon.

_(30 minutes later)_

Ash and Serena were awaiting their next opponent for the battle, it was then two young ladies with black hair appeared wearing the same red outfit and black boots appeared ready to battle them, "go Medicham,"one of the ladies called out their pokemon for battle.

"Hariyama, let's go." The other girl called for the battle

"Floette, it's time to battle," Serena called for her fairy type pokemon.

"Right, my turn, Gabite, I choose you," Ash called for his dragon type pokemon, "hey Serena want to try another combination move," Ash asked his rival with a cheeky grin, "when the time is right, I need you to use Dazzling Gleam, I will be using Draco Meteor," Ash instructed his teammate about the combination.

"Right, just let me know when you're ready to do so," Serena told Ash while looking over to her pokemon.

"Not this time Serena, you will know when the time is right," Ash retorted while Serena leapt back in shock, "Serena, if we are going to be a strong team, you will also need to read the situation, trust me on this," Ash stated with a smirk.

Serena nodded and refocused on the battle at hand, "Floette attack with Fairy Wind," Serena called for the first attack of the tag battle.

"Gabite, attack with Stone Edge," Ash ordered his pokemon quickly, his pokemon become surrounded with stones before sending them flying towards the fighting type pokmon, but as the stones flew towards the two opposing pokemon Serena's fairy type pokemon unleashed a powerful gust of wind combining with Gabite's stone edge causing them to hit the pokemon with immense force.

"Wow, we did more damage," Serena commented as the two fighting types slowly got back to their feet.

"Hariyama, attack with Arm Thrust," the female on the left called for an attack.

"Medicam attack with High Jump Kick," the other female trainer called for the next attack.

"Gabite dodge Hariyama's attack, then use Dragon claw," Ash ordered his pokemon calmly.

"Floette, move forward to dodge High Jump Kick," Serena replied to the other trainer's attack.

Ash and Serena's pokemon followed the instructions with perfection as the two waited for another opening, Ash's Gabite slashed down on the larger fighting type pokemon causing it to fall back towards its trainer, while the unsuccessful High Jump Kick caused significant damage to Medicham, the two opposing trainers started to panic at the situation that was un folding in front of them, the crowd grew excited about the battle as a glint in the eyes of Ash and Serena.

"Now Gabite, attack with Draco Meteor," Ash instructed his pokemon, his pokemon started to glow as the energy from within started to take shape.

"Dazzling Gleam now," Serena ordered soon after Ash.

The two pokemon fired their attacks at their respective foes, a ball of energy flew into the air before separating, it started to crash down on the two pokemon as another blast of energy pulsed from the fairy type pokemon, the meteors crashed down on the fighting pokemon causing significant damage on them, the battle ended when the referee raised his flag towards Ash and Serena's side of the field.

"Yes, we won another battle," the two celebrated while raising their hands for a high five.

The two trainer recalled their pokemon and extended out their hand to shake Ash's and Serena's, "hey that was a great combination, you two make quite the team," one of the two girls told the rivals quietly, "hey have you heard of a young lady by the name of Korrina? You should challenge her after this tournament, I heard rumours she has two Lucarios," she said with a confident smirk.

Ash thought back to the woman who crashed into him before their battle, "is she a roller skater, that crashes into people by accident?" Ash asked the two girls, they nodded while Ash shook his head, "yeah I met her, and the rumour of her having two Lucarios is true, because I can sense it," Ash replied before walking away leaving the two girls stunned at his revelations and the fact that he met the gym leader by accident.

"Ash wait!" Serena called over to the trainer, she grabbed his wrist making him turn around, "so what are you Ash?" Serena asked quietly as the two bullies brushed pass them not even looking at them.

"Me, I am an aura guardian, I am certain that those two Lucarios can sense my aura abilities as well, since I did have a situation a long time ago, involving a Mew and a Lucario," Ash explained while the blonde haired trainer gasped in shock at the fact that he saw such a rare pokemon, "I guess you want me to tell you all about it," Ash said with a broad smile, his rival nodded with great interest, the raven haired trainer chuckled before noticing the woman who crashed into him earlier.

Korrina approached Ash and Serena with a determined expression, "you," Korrina pointed to Ash who pointed at himself soon after, "my Lucarios are interested in you," she said while calling out her two pokemon.

"Me, why does it have to be me? I mean, there is a perfectly good trainer standing next to me, who needs Lucario," Ash replied in a lazy tone.

"Nope, it has to be you," Korrina replied with a playful smile.

"After the Tournament," Ash replied while walking away from the young gym leader, "Serena and I challenge you to a gym battle," Ash challenged the roller skater before walking away.

Serena bowed her head, "sorry about Ash, I have only just met him after a long time, I will talk to him," Serena told the gym leader before running off to chase Ash.

Korrina watched the trainer chase after Ash, 'so it seems like Lucario is right, she has hidden potential,' Korrina thought to herself while looking back to the tournament, "you know, those two will win this tournament, there is something between those two that make them stronger," Korrina whispered as she walked towards the main arena.

Meanwhile outside the stadium Jessie, James and Meowth were talking about their plan, "we might have been defeated, but that means nothing, our boss needs to have the powers of Mega Evolution," James stated while pulling out a computer to open up the communications between them and their boss, "sir, we are keeping an eye on Team Flare, we will be making preparations for you arrival and to present you with a Mega Ring," James explained the goals to the boss.

"Very good, now I need you three to make sure Team Flare don't get in our way when it comes to our world domination," Giovanni told the Team Rocket trio while sipping his cup of tea.

"Sir," the three saluted before ending transmission.

"So we need to make sure we get those Mega Rings before anyone else does," Jessie stated while looking at the top of the tower, she then turned her gaze to her teammates as they then noticed three more members of Teal Flare approaching the Tower of Mastery.

"We have four of our men keeping an eye on the tower, at the moment, we are also position ourselves for the next big move," Meowth explained with a smirk, the trio leapt off to make sure that the final preparations were made.

"Ash, wait up," Serena called to Ash who was rushing off to the Pokemon Center.

"Serena, there is a few questions I need to find out, at the moment, I need to figure out what this stone is all about," Ash commented while showing his rival the stone in his backpack.

Serena gasped at the sight of the stone, she too pulled out a stone from her bag and showed it to Ash, "this came with Torchic Ash, but I have no idea what it is," Serena replied while the two looked at the respective stones, they looked at them for a moment and began to wonder what they have to do with their pokemon, "hey maybe Christine and Steven knows about these two stones," Serena commented while placing the stone back into her pocket.

They didn't noticed the two people watching them from behind, "oh it looks like those two love birds have a Blazikenite and a Garchompite, this will be interesting, maybe we can have a bit of fun and take it off their hands, not like those two will ever get the chance to use it," Blair explained while laughing at her victim from years ago.

"Yeah, it isn't like those two losers will get the chance to use it since we will be the ones beating them in battle," Mark said while walking towards the Pokemon Center after their battle against their foes.

Inside the medical facility Ash and Serena were sitting down with Christine and Steven sitting opposite them, "well what you two have here is something called a Megastone, it has the power to evolve Garchomp and Blaziken one step further, but only for battle," Christine started while handing back the items to Ash and Serena, "in fact Mark and I actually help Professor Sycamore with his Mega-Evolution research," Christine stated while watching the rivals place the items in their backpack.

"That's right, we have been doing so for the last few years, and we can actually ask for you two to help out, we would like to ask our other friends, but I feel that they shouldn't have the privilege," Steven explained while looking up to see their old school friends who were upset about the gesture that was being pass down to two other people.

"How could you give these two losers that honour and not us?" Blair asked in anger as she walked up to the two trainers, "I thought we were friends Christy, but I guess you care too much for Serena to be bothered with us," Blair angrily stormed out of the building with Mark following soon afterwards, "those four will pay for this, Mark we are also going to steal the Mega Rings and use them against Ash and Serena," Blair decreed while rushing off towards the tower without hesitation.

"Oh boy, Serena to be honest, we made sure those two didn't hurt you further, don't hold it against them, it just seems like they will be taking longer to grow up than we didm" Steven stated while placing his hand on the blonde trainer's shoulder. He then walked up to Ash and smiled, "take care of her, plus I can tell you like her, just say something to her," Steven told Ash while walking away from the two with Christine by his side, "Christine I don't trust those two, when Blair gets angry she is known to do stupid things," Steven said knowingly, he looked towards the tower with the blue sky as a backdrop, he then looked back to see Ash and Serena talking, "what's the bet they will never tell each other how they feel, I bet my Aron and my Aggronite that Ash and Serena are too oblivious to one another's feelings," Steven remarked with a cheeky grin while showing off his mega stone to Christine..

Christine looked back and smiled at the two, "you're on, they will something before they leave this city, I bet my Charmander and my Charizardite X that those two will confess before they leave," Christine stated accepted the challenge, they extended their hands and shook respectively, "we better make sure Blair and Mark don't get into trouble," Christine stated while running off towards the tower.

Back in the Pokemon Center Ash and Serena were talking about Ash's adventures, "you know Ash, I was thinking before we leave this city, how about we tell each other something the other doesn't know," Serena suggested with a hopeful grin, she looked back towards the burning fire in the lounge room area, Serena got up and walked towards the fire on her own, 'why did I suggest that? I am so stupid,' Serena berated herself, she didn't notice Ash walking to her side, she looked up and smiled not realising that they were inching closer to holding hands, Pikachu in the background watched as it was happening, "you know Ash, I guess after a few weeks, I feel really close to you," Serena commented with great joy, but was too nervous to say a thing.

Ash and Serena looked down, and noticed their hands getting closer, they soon pulled away and started laughing, "well, we better get dinner," Ash commented causing Pikachu to hit his head on the table in disbelief, the small electric mouse hit his head at least three times he knew that the two were that close to saying something, but felt that Ash was too stupid to act on it, 'Pikachu, why does your head have a bruise on it?" Ash asked his partner pokemon with curiosity, after the question was asked Pikachu hit his forehead with his paw in disgust at the trainer's oblivious nature.

* * *

**Ash and Serena are now in the Grand Final, their opponents two more of Serena's school yard bullies. Will Ash and Serena win? And what about the growing feelings between the two? Who will win this bet? Christine or Steven?**

**Next time chapter 9: Tower of Terror.**

_After chapter 10 I will be doing another focus on the two characters, Ash will be first then it will be Serena, also after chapter 10, I will be starting the one-shot series as well, so any requests that you want to make, please PM me about what you would like to see in the short story series, the rules are simple, they will be T rated stories, so nothing too heavy or adult material._

_The holidays I will be doing are Christmas, Easter and New Years. Any other for me will require some research since I don't know them all, unlike Australia Day and ANZAC Day._


End file.
